


Lemonade

by ultima88



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Adventure, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Elisabeth and Noah are already burnt with love, Eva's World, Filling the blanks, Fluff and Humor, Multi, Mystery, Not Canon Compliant, Pining, Romance, Secrets, Slow Burn, for Aleksander and Regina, for Bartosz and Silja, time travelling is all over the place with this one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 11:07:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25848541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultima88/pseuds/ultima88
Summary: A crisis between Aleksander and Regina in the 80s threatens the future of Tiedemanns and possibly the whole time loop which Eva’s Erit Lux works so hard to preserve. Eva sends Bartosz and Silja to check on this crisis and their guides are none other than Noah and Elisabeth in this mission. As Bartosz and Silja get to know Aleksander & Regina and Noah & Elisabeth, they take a look at their own derailed relationship. Mysteries wait to be unsolved on their journey.
Relationships: Aleksander Tiedemann | Boris Niewald/Regina Tiedemann, Bartosz Tiedemann/Silja Tiedemann, Elisabeth Doppler/Noah | Hanno Tauber
Comments: 87
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

On a hot summer day in the year 1900, Bartosz Tiedemann enjoys the warm afternoon sun on a folding chair just outside the Winden Caves, after a consuming day of chopping wood for Erit Lux.

 _This Eva is really weird_ , he thinks. Building a lavish headquarters for time travellers’ inside Winden Caves with marble floors and wooden paneled walls. Who will go there, apart from the usual time travellers? Erna, the owner of the local tavern? Maybe Eva thought that if she was going to build a secret society for time travellers, she should do it with style. 

But Bartosz doesn't complain much. Contrary to his expectations, this lifestyle is kind of growing on him. Sure he misses certain things of his time like the internet, video games or washing machine –oh washing machine, his weakest spot, he still feels bad for taking its means granted back in the 21st Century– but he adapts to the early 20th Century lifestyle quite well. He likes getting up early, feeding chickens in the coop and talking to the chestnut colored horse Gretchen and yeah, he _knows_ _it_ but Claudia insisted on giving this name anyway.

He had his difficulties, especially when he first arrived here. He had problems in orienting himself in this new environment, accepting and coming to terms with his important role in the time loop. There were also moments when he felt lonely, aching for a meaningful human connection in the long, cold, rainy days of Winden winters. Luckily for him, in one of those days, he met a dark haired girl with a mischievous look on her face. 

He had already known that Silja and he would eventually meet. It is their fate—actually it is engraved on the marble plates that decorate the ground of Erit Lux’s headquarters.

This is actually one thing that gets under Bartosz’s skin about living in a time loop: In Erit Lux, everybody normalizes time travel and their roles in Eva’s mission to comical degrees: Eva makes regular meetings with Marthas; Martha’s son, the nameless cleft-lipped creepy boy hangs out with his older selves; Hanno, Noah and Elisabeth play cards. Hell, one time, old Bartosz asked for his sweater that he brought with him from 2019, because a very pregnant Silja got cold and his own sweater was taken under the exact circumstances but never brought back. 

_It doesn’t work that way_ , he thinks. Not for the sweater but for Erit Lux. Eva might have done a great job in bringing all the actors together to keep the time loop smoothly going to this day, but everything is predictable and almost boring. Where’s the spontaneity and excitement? 

He sighs. _At least I’m not in Adam’s World_ , he consoles himself. He has heard very bad stories about what they do over there, and comparing these two, it is more than okay that he ended up in Erit Lux than “Sick Prunedus”. 

He lies back on the chair and stretches his feet on a log. He closes his eyes to remember a proverb that people use to encourage optimism in difficult times…

_If life gives you lemons make—_

“Lemonade?” Silja stretches her arm towards him holding a glass full of a liquid in front of him. It looks _drinkable_.

“Do you want some?” She looks at him with gentle and tired eyes.

“Where do you find lemons in Winden?” Bartosz asks suspiciously, taking the glass from her small hands. 

Silja makes a gesture for him to move to the side to let her sit down.

“I didn’t find them. Noah did. He brought them back from his visit to the 1980s,” she says as she lies back on her half of the chair. 

“How thoughtful of him.” he says half-heartedly and lets a weary sigh out of his nose.

He never really gets along with Noah. He acts as if everything is a game for him. He and his younger self Hanno are famous around Erit Lux with their pranks. One time, they hid his beloved sneakers that he brought with him from 2019. He had to spend the whole day working on his thin soled leather shoes which he normally uses as daily wear. Bartosz has extreme difficulty in believing that this happy-go-lucky manchild is actually his son. 

“I think we did good with Noah,” Silja says, her head up to the sky, gazing at the passing clouds. 

“We haven’t done anything yet, Silja,” Bartosz objects. 

A silence sits in between them that none of them find strange. They are used to these pregnant silences which will eventually be broken by one of them giving a snarky remark about their relationship. This time it is Silja:

“Dragging your feet won’t do much on the progress of our relationship, you know that,” she mumbles without lifting her gaze from the clouds.

Bartosz gives a big sigh as he stands up. He puts his hands in his pockets and starts kicking small stones on the ground with the tip of his shoe. 

_She doesn’t understand,_ He thinks. Silja just wants to blindly follow the orders of Eva and it seems like she cares more about keeping the family tree going and playing her role, rather than getting to know Bartosz better. And maybe what’s worse is that she doesn’t expect him to love her either. It’s not a secret around Erit Lux that their non-existent relationship had a rough start. 

Hanno’s voice startles him and disrupts his thoughts. He turns over his shoulder to see his future son's face. 

“Silja,” Hanno nods towards Silja and she turns her head from gazing at the clouds to reciprocate with a faint smile. At this exact moment Bartosz can’t help but notice Hanno’s resemblance to Silja: his mischievous demeanor, delicate cheekbones and pointed chin are almost an exact copy of her -although he thinks that his contribution to his chin is also quite noticeable- Seeing them next to each other somehow softens his thoughts about Erit Lux. No matter how forced most of the relationships might be, there’s something poetic about seeing a mother and son around the same age catching up on each other.

Bartosz thinks often about his own mom, Regina. He thinks about the last time he saw her. She was lying down on her hospital bed that was assembled in their living room. After spending three months in the hospital for necessary but hard treatments, she insisted on coming back. 

It made Bartosz angry that the day her mother passed away was a beautiful September morning. It was as if God, cosmos, whatever they call it, didn’t care that he lost his mother that day. Him and his father were holding her fragile hands as she said I love you one last time and drifted in a deep sleep, never to wake up. After her death, Bartosz thought very much about that last I love you. Regina brought him up by expressing her love to him at any available moment because this was something she had never had a chance to experience with her mother, Claudia. In their own personal relationship, Bartosz’s parents were openly expressing their love for each other too, but they also had a different connection than stereotypical gestures of love can’t equate. He always thought his parents were the healthiest couple among his peers' parents. That was until his father confessed his secret to him.

After the last ever discussion he had with him, Bartosz refuses to accept his father’s part in Regina’s last I love you. In fact, he can not stand to hear the word father.

“Halo Papa.” 

Well, _that was close._

Hanno brings Bartosz’s mind back to Winden Caves. He has a smile –no, a smirk– that teases him constantly.

Bartosz greets him with a loud sigh.

“Eva calls you both. She says it’s important.”

“Important?” Bartosz says doubtfully. With Hanno everything can be a part of a prank but using Eva as a bait is a little far fetched, even for him.

“What does she want?” Bartosz asks.

Hanno shrugs his shoulders. 

“Don’t know, they were talking with Noah. I think it was about your parents.”

“My parents?”

“I suppose they broke up.”

*****

“Don’t you think they both lack experience for this?” Eva asks Noah as Hanno was bringing Bartosz and Silja to her study.

“They’ll be fine.” Noah answered in his usual confident demeanor. “Elisabeth and I will help them.”

“I hope you’re right. Well, it even might be a chance for them to connect with each other too.” 

Hanno makes a polite noise. Eva notices the young trio and invites them in with her hand.

They step in and walk until the family tree marble plates. 

“Noah informed me of an unexpected event that happened in 1987,” Eva says. “It’s about your parents Bartosz, it seems like they are not together anymore,” 

“But isn’t that impossible?” Bartosz asks in disbelief. “After all we all exist here and now.”

“Perhaps,” Eva raises her eyebrows.

“But your existence may also indicate a more serious problem.”

Eva walks towards the trio from the other side of the room and stops on the edge of the marble plates. She glances down towards Regina and Aleksander’s name. 

“You think because your older selves already exist, you can not disappear into thin air. You’re right.”

Eva steps on Aleksander’s name.

“But you can also exist if Regina’s husband is another man,”

Hanno shakes his head. “And this creates a problem how?”

“Your genetics and characteristics will be different,” Eva explains and lifts her head up and looks over to Bartosz, Hanno and Noah who are all standing side by side.

“All of Regina’s descendants will be different. This will create chaos in the time loop, and will threaten its safety.” 

“Do you think it’s Sic Mundus’ job?” Hanno asks.

“I don’t know yet, that’s why I need you here for a while,” Eva answers.

“In the meantime I’m sending you two to 1987 to check on Regina and Aleksander,” Eva gestures toward Bartosz and Silja.

“Us?” Silja has a slight panic in her face. Bartosz thinks that since she was so eager to play her role, a disturbance in the natural flow of life makes her panic. But Bartosz is more than ready. A different thing in this boring time loop? 80s? Arcade Games? Crazy hairstyles? Washing machine!?

 _Beam me up_ , he thinks.

“Elisabeth is already based in 1987. You will be staying in her house, and Noah will come and check on you during his usual visits,” Eva says as Noah takes out his time orb. 

“Noah will take you there and Elisabeth will explain the plan in detail. Be safe and if you notice any changes in your body Bartosz, a mark or any other thing that wasn’t there before, tell immediately to Elisabeth, this one's for you too Noah,”

Noah smiles thinking if something changes in his body, Elisabeth will be more attentive than him.

“All right are you ready?” Noah says as he opens his arms to hug Silja and Bartosz.

“What are you doing?” Bartosz irks.

“Even two people are a lot to transport with the time orb, Papa” Noah says, causing Bartosz to make another big sigh out of his nose. 

“Fasten your seatbelt old man.” Noah jokes as the time orb opens and spins around.

 _Oh my, It’s going to be a long journey,_ Bartosz thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This idea actually came from that one scene in season 3 where Eva instructs Tiedemanns. I just loved how generations of Tiedemanns stand side by side. I also loved the fact that Eva’s world is less violent then Adam’s world: Noah never kills Bartosz, Claudia never causes the death of Egon. Also it has openness, Aleksander even confessed Bartosz about his past even though it was at the very end. 
> 
> However, openness doesn’t mean that they don’t have secrets. In this story, I hope to surprise you with some reveals and above all I want to explore the daily life of Tiedemanns which I think a very crucial part of this story. 
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and your comments are more than welcomed :)


	2. Chapter 2

Elisabeth lives in a two story house with white painted brick walls and an ivy climbing up on its front side. Noah knocked the doorknob three times as he always does whenever he comes to see her, as much as his errands for Erit Lux allow him to.  
  
“Coming,” Elisabeth’s voice inside the house echoes and her blonde hair appears from the red windowed door. She opens the door to her husband and their visitors, as she peaks her head out, smiling.

“Welcome to 1987,” Elisabeth greets Bartosz and Silja as Noah warps his arm around Elisabeth’s shoulder and kisses her on the corner of her lips. Bartosz can feel Silja’s glazing eyes on his neck as if she says: _look how affectionate your son is, you have a lot to learn from him._

They walk along the hallway which leads to a spacious studio. An array of canvases are stocked in one corner and an easel is standing on a plastic sheet in another, surrounded by paint buckets and brushes of various sizes. On the easel, there is a portrait of a young girl, dark blonde haired with light colored freckles looking at them. She has a curious look in her eyes.

Bartosz and Silja sit around the circular table in the studio which has colorful dried paint sparkles all over it. Noah goes to the kitchen to help Elisabeth with the coffees. 

Silja is fascinated by the elegance and the mixture of colors in Elisabeth’s studio. To her, it is a perfect representation of the woman who raised her. In the years they spent together during her childhood, Elisabeth is the closest thing to the mom Silja never had. And to Elisabeth, Silja is not an aidless orphan that she took under her wings. She became her friend and confidante. They consoled each other on their shared losses. They shared each other's pains and to Silja, if someone can pour her pain to vivid colors and create a beauty out of it, this person is certainly Elisabeth.

Elisabeth is trying to find sugar in the kitchen as Noah is watching her with sparkles on his eyes. Elisabeth tries to ignore him. They have a lot of things to do, but Noah seems like he just wants to play. He leans against the counter and blocks her way in the tiny kitchen, with his arms crossed over his chest and a flirtatious look on his face. Elisabeth nods over to the cabinet he is blocking.

“I need to take the sugar, if you don’t mind,” she says, trying hard to keep her serious demeanor. 

Noah slides sideways without breaking eye contact. As Elisabeth leans towards the cabinet, he stretches out his head and steals a kiss from her. Elisabeth turns and opens her mouth in an amused surprise. Noah mimics her.

“I got my sugar thank you,” He says.

“Your parents are in the next room!” Elisabeth objects as she jokingly slaps his shoulder with a kitchen cloth.

Noah shrugs. “They are like what? 17-18? I hardly think it’s disrespectful.” 

Elisabeth can not keep her serious demeanor anymore. She lets go a joyful giggle and gives a quick peck on his lips which works as a charm for Noah to open the way for her. 

Elisabeth picks the sugar bowl, arranges the cups on the tray and pours each one coffee.

“How are they holding up?” She asks, nodding her head towards the studio.

Noah makes an expression that indicates things are not going well between his parents.

“Apparently Bartosz has cold feet,” he answers. “And Silja seems frustrated about that. She wants to have some fun, you know?”

Elisabeth lets go another amused giggle.

“Oh I know very well. It’s also good to know where your playful genes are coming from.” 

They find Bartosz and Silja sitting silently around the table. Bartosz is looking at the rear garden, towards the beautiful scenery of Winden Woods, while Silja brings her attention inside, to Elisabeth’s oil paintings which are hanging on the studio walls. 

“Coffee are ready,” Elisabeth says and gently puts the tray in the middle of the table.

“Thank you,” Silja says as she picks up her cup and looks over Elisabeth’s shoulder to the blonde girl on the easel.

Elisabeth notices Silja’s gaze, she turns over to look.

“It’s beautiful,” Silja says “Is she—”

“Charlotte.” Elisabeth answers swiftly as she too picks up her coffee and looks down at it, adding nothing else.

Noah knows this look very well, it is the one look that drains the blood out of his veins. It is the look of pain and sorrow for many unlived experiences of a daughter, of a mother. It embodies the feeling of loss and the tragedy of witnessing your child growing up from afar. 

Elisabeth and her mother Charlotte took the baby from its crib and brought it to Tannhaus on a stormy night. Elisabeth can not forget the look on the old man’s face as he held the baby for the first time. Baby Charlotte never cried once during this exchange and Elisabeth thought it would be the last time she would ever see her daughter. Eva decided it would be dangerous for them to hang around, so they were immediately called back to Erit Lux headquarters afterwards. Elisabeth’s mom Charlotte died a little after their arrival. Her body couldn’t bear the setbacks of time travel anymore. Their last moments as mother and daughter were mostly silent nods and hidden cries when the other one was not looking.

After her mother's death, Elisabeth asked Eva to return to the late 1980s. Eva accepted it on two conditions: No telling Charlotte about her parents and absolutely no mention of time travel to anyone. Elisabeth settled in her house and now works as an art teacher in Gesamtschule Winden. She is teaching 11th grade this year. Charlotte’s class. 

Noah looks toward his wife. He wants to pluck out the suffering pressuring her chest and put it into his. In these times, his playfulness is just not enough to cheer her up. It just becomes a facade for both of them to keep their pain inside. Noah, not finding the strength to lift any spirits, feels the need to change the subject immediately.

“How do you like the 1980s?” He asks Bartosz.

“So far, so good,” Bartosz answers in a blink. He understands the heavy air hanging over their heads. 

“I was looking at this building far across. It looks like it’s on the edge of the woods, it’s very intimidating and yet I don’t remember it from the 2000s nor the 1900s.”

They all turn their heads to look at the building that Bartosz is directing at. There is indeed a building on top of the hills. It has a natural stone facade and a high hip roof. It looks abandoned with a couple of windows broken on its second floor but the rest of it is mostly intact.

“Oh,” Noah says. “It’s the _company_.”

“The company?”

“Yeah. It belonged to a mining company in the late 1930s that is rumored to have some dark business with Third Reich.” 

Bartosz shakes his head in disbelief. “Third Reich? How come no one told me this?”

Noah shrugs. “It’s probably because no one wanted to talk about it. After the war, the building was abandoned. You’ve never seen it in your life, because it will be demolished by the late 90s.”

Noah takes a sip from his coffee. “People say they excavated right under the building to exploit the mines, and it is like a labirynth under there.”

“Have you seen it?” Bartosz asks with enthusiasm.

“No, but I know it from Elisabeth,” Noah nods at his wife. “She says the police did a big search there for Mads Nielsen when he first disappeared,” Noah says quietly and falls into silence, looking absently at the edge of the table. 

“And with that, let's talk about where we stand right now,” Elisabeth switches the attention to herself. 

“You are in 1987. It’s been six months since Mads _disappeared_ .” Bartosz notices that she said the word _disappeared_ quietly. 

“The police are looking for him.” Elisabeth continues and turns her head towards Bartosz.

“Your mother is living with her mother and her grandfather in your old house. Claudia is directing the powerplant. The accident has already happened and I believe that your father helped Claudia cover it up.”

Bartosz sighs and crosses his arms around his chest. _Of course_ _his father covered up the accident. How many more secrets can a man hide from his son?_

“Mine is just a hunch.” Elisabeth says flatly. 

Silja lifts her head from her cup to give her two cents on the situation. 

“Claudia should have hired him because of Regina. Regina must have told him that her mom is the head of the power plant.”

“It might be,” Elisabeth says, giving her a hesitated nod and following the circular edge of her cup with her finger. “It’s at least what Claudia told in Erit Lux when she first began time travelling, but apart from that,”

“We actually know very little about Aleksander,” Noah completes her sentence. 

Bartosz sits quietly at his seat with a pensive expression. As his son, he knows very little about his father too. The only window to his past life is his confession to him about an incident he was involved in Marburg.

_“Murder in Marburg Unsolved 33 Years Later”_

That was the headline Aleksander showed Bartosz on the day of the apocalypse. 

_I’m not a murderer,_ he said to him. 

Bartosz clenches his jaw as he recollects the exact moment he asked him if his mom knew about this. He was grinding his teeth as his father was solemnly nodding no. He also remembers very well what he said next:

_Your mother is the best thing that ever happened to me._

Since this last discussion in which Aleksander's secrets have spilled and its aftermath, Bartosz has difficulty believing his father’s words about his mom. Believing in Aleksander’s love for Regina or even his concern for her gets harder with each reveal. On the other hand, he was there when her parents seemed genuinely in love. In Bartosz’s eyes, his father is getting more and more enigmatic and this makes Bartosz angry at Aleksander. If only he could find him, 

_he would have_ _confronted him face to face._

“Bartosz?” Silja touches his arm softly to bring him back from his thoughts. Bartosz looks at where her hand stands, then he lifts his head slowly to see Silja’s face clouded with concern. Somehow her touch makes him feel _better_.

“Noah asked if you know anything about your father that might be helpful to us.” Silja blinks at him.

Bartosz unfolds his arms and nods no. 

“Had your parents ever talked about their teenage years?” Elisabeth asks.

“Barely,” Bartosz answers. “I know they lived together after Claudia and Egon disappeared. They got married in 1993,” _and my father got my mother's surname._ Bartosz says that last part internally. The reason they did such a thing in the 90s dawns on him for the first time. _Does this mean his father tricked her somehow?_ _Or maybe_ _his mother knew? Smaller chance, though._

Elisabeth already knew Aleksander had Regina’s surname. It wasn’t a secret. But she asks anyway and he responds with the typical answer his parents gave to anyone: _Tiedemanns did good to this town and they both wanted to keep the surname._

“Did they tell you how they met?”

“Yeah, through friends.”

Noah gives out an exhalation of amusement through his nose. Elisabeth gives him a scowl and elbows him. Noah utters an ow and shrugs, his palms turned towards the ceiling.

“Come on!” He protests. “It’s not a secret that my grandmother is a bit of a nerd,” Noah objects to Elisabeth’s discerning looks. “Her only friend is the other nerd in this town, our beloved Charlotte.”

“Did they become friends?” Silja asks enthusiastically.

Elisabeth smiles and nods yes. “That's how I learnt about Regina and Aleksander, they were talking about it in my class. It got my attention because Regina barely speaks in the class, let alone about boys.” 

Elisabeth lays back in her chair, pulls her one knee to her chest and balances the coffee cup in her hands. She’s about to spill some tea –or coffee, to be exact–

“Okay, apparently it was around Christmas when he opened up to her...”

The exact moment in her art class when Regina told the story flashes before Elisabeth’s eyes. It was a lazy last lesson at the end of a tiring week. The students were filling their color wheels as Elisabeth was logging in her teacher’s book.

Regina and Charlotte were sitting in front of her, facing her table. Regina was blankly mixing a Cadmium Red with French Ultramarine in her palette as she was telling Charlotte about the time they went to the Christmas Bazaar with Aleksander. 

“We were looking at the games and he suddenly stopped in front of a claw machine and asked me what I want,” Regina ponders.

“He just had his first paycheck and he wanted to give me a gift.”

“Very sweet,” Charlotte said without lifting her head up from her paper.

“There was a penguin up close, so I chose it, but I wished I hadn’t because he spent all of his daily wage trying to pick that up.” Regina’s mixture was slowly turning to a dull violet.

“With his last token, he pushed the joystick, the claw dived in and picked a red heart with _ich liebe dich_ written on its front.”

Charlotte chuckled and almost spilled her water.

“Our faces were just like this,” Regina said pointing to a bright pink chip in Charlotte’s color wheel. “That night, he asked me to go out with him.”

“Wait a minute,” Charlotte stopped and turned to Regina. “Is this the guy you spent a night with in the woods and asked me to cover up for you if something happens?”

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Bartosz interrupts Elisabeth’s telling. “I guess I don’t need to hear about my parents boning each other, thank you.” He slowly gets up from his chair but Silja stops him midway.

“I think it will be educational for you, Bartosz,” she says as she opens her eyes widely and directs him to sit down with her head. Bartosz unwillingly follows her order and mumbles something to himself.

Elisabeth and Noah are watching their performance in full amusement. They too, give each other meaningful looks to indicate that they’re on the right track with Bartosz and Silja.

“You don’t have to be prudish Bartosz, they’ve just camped in the woods that night,” Elisabeth chimes in.

_“And they shared their first kiss!”_

Squee!

Everybody around Bartosz are squeeing. Noah is even clapping in front of his face as Bartosz rolls his eyes and snickers just like his beloved horse Gretchen. Not even a day passed since he’s arrived, but he just has this urgent need to go back to his horse, rather than to be in this circus.

“I thought we’re here because they broke up?” Bartosz asks, shaking his head.

Elisabeth sits up properly in her seat, her elbows settled on the table as others follow her lead as well.

“We actually don’t know if they broke up. Because even Regina doesn’t know if they broke up.”

“What does it mean?” 

“Aleksander basically disappeared from her life!” She exclaims. “They were in the woods again one day, he told her that he loves her – _for the first time ever_ – they kissed, she told him back that she loves him and then... puff! Regina never heard from Aleksander again.”

“What a prick!” Silja fumes. She also looks sideways to decipher Bartosz’s expression without him noticing, but Bartosz is not giving her any hints and staring blankly on his empty cup. 

_What else can you expect from a liar?_ He thinks.

“But he should be still around here, shouldn’t he?” Silja asks. “Did he quit his job as well?”

“We’re checking on that,” says Noah.

“But I never see him around the school like I used to do,” adds Elisabeth.

“Poor Regina,” Silja sympathizes, “How is she doing?”

“Okay, I guess,” Elisabeth answers. “The only thing noticeable for me is that she stopped straightening her hair.”

“But of course you might notice other things when you come to the class,” she throws a glance at her future students.

“Are we going back to school?” a question that Bartosz never thought he’d ask enthusiastically.

“Yes! I have already talked with the principal and Erit Lux helped me arrange some papers,” Elisabeth gets up and picks a file off a shelf. She hands out some forms to Bartosz and Silja. 

“I left some of the boxes empty. I thought you might want to fill it yourselves.” 

“Surname…” Silja murmurs. “But I don’t think we can write Tiedemann can we?”

“It’s better if you pick a surname that is not the same with the prominent families here,” Elisabeth answers. “For instance, I’m using Noah’s given surname Tauber,”

“Oh, can I use Tauber too?” Silja jumps a little in her seat.

“Well, this will make us related but I think it works?” Elisabeth looks quickly over her shoulder to Noah, who smiles at his wife. He nods yes to both of them and turns his attention to Bartosz. 

“I suggest you not pick the same surname though. Let’s not bring Erit Lux drama here. Also, you can never know what might happen in these hormone driven 80s,” he winks.

Silja giggles and covers her face with her form. Bartosz contents himself with only one dissenting look thrown at Noah.

“I’m done with mine,” Bartosz says as he slides his form over the other end of the table.

Elisabeth picks it up and reads.

“Bartosz Niewald.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re slowly laying the groundwork for next chapters. I feel like Bartosz might have a grudge on Aleksander after their last discussion, and want to take matters into his own hands. 
> 
> I also felt like the kiss in the woods is a little further on Aleksander and Regina’s relationship, so I gave them a first kiss story here :) 
> 
> I hope that the internet is right and French Ultramarine and Cadmium Red is indeed a dull violet.
> 
> With life happening, I’m doing my best to update as quickly as I can. For now, once a week looks doable, but might have some delays for the future. 
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and your comments are more than welcomed :)


	3. Chapter 3

Regina wakes up to a school day after another restless sleep. She gets up and heads to the bathroom. In the last few days, she has reduced her morning routine to a minimum: No blow-dry, no makeup, no contact lenses. She goes to the kitchen to find her grandfather drinking coffee and reading the paper at the breakfast table. 

“Good morning Regina,” Egon says looking over his paper to Regina’s pensive face. 

“Morning,” Regina mumbles while looking for something hastily through the kitchen. In the end, she spots it: an audio cassette tape. She looks at the label, puts it in her pocket, and heads to the door.

“Hey, Regina, wait for a second,” Egon calls at her. 

Regina stops hesitantly and turns back.

Egon gets up from his seat and picks a brown bag on the counter.

“We have Knoppers today.” He says shaking the bag a little.

Regina stands in front of her grandfather, silent and dismal, looking at his unshaven face and tired eyes. He doesn’t seem to have had a good sleep either. On top of a terminal disease that wears him down each day, he is also stressing over his unsuccessful search for Mads Nielsen. His own daughter is nowhere to be seen too, but Regina already knows the reason behind this. 

Her mother Claudia is a workaholic and ever since she became the head of the power plant, Regina hardly sees her in the house. Even though Claudia proposed to Egon to stay with them during his treatment and assured him that she’ll handle it all, she spends her days in the power plant and God knows where else.

“My mom didn’t come again yesterday did she?” Regina asks Egon.

Egon nods negatively. “She’s working very hard these days Regina, you know that,” he watches his granddaughter's pensive face with concern. 

“She worries about you,” he says as Regina shuffles her shoes and looks down. 

“I’m worried about you too, you seem very... tired lately, is everything okay?”

_Everything’s okay?_

_Everything’s okay._

A very common sentence people have heard many times in their lives. But for Regina, it has another meaning. Given with a firm but tender touch, this sentence made her open her heart to a stranger some months ago.

 _What a stupid thing to do_ , she thinks.

_You searched for trouble, and you found it. Bravo._

_How pathetic are you?_

She glances away and replies to her grandfather with a semi-convincing nod.

Egon rubs his neck as he stresses over his next words.

“Regina...” he mumbles. “I know you’ve already said not to worry about this boy that this sneaky Ulrich told me about but...”

Regina whimpers, knowing what comes next.

“If someone’s bothering you, this boy that you see, or any other person, you can always tell me.”

Regina sighs deeply.

“Don’t worry about it, grandpa. I don’t see him anymore.” 

She picks the brown bag from her grandfather’s hand and rushes off for school. 

****

Silja spent her first night in 1987 with restful sleep. Elisabeth’s house is large enough to accommodate each in a separate room and even though Silja’s wish was to idle one room away as Elisabeth and Noah do, Bartosz strongly opposed staying in the same room with her. 

Silja is walking down the hallway to go to the bathroom and then she stops in front of Bartosz's room and listens inside. Not managing to hear anything she hesitantly reaches for the handle but is startled by the sudden sound of Elisabeth approaching. She turns away to see her at the entryway. Her back towards Silja, she is talking to Noah in a secretive kind of way. Noah is looking down and distressed. Silja gets inside the bathroom and pricks up her ears to understand what they’re talking about.

“I don’t know if I can take it anymore,” Noah sniffles.

Elisabeth takes his hands and lowers her head to catch his misting blue eyes.

“I know it is hard, but we can go through this. We’ve successfully passed any test that Erit Lux sent our way so far, haven’t we?” Elisabeth asks in a futile attempt to cheer him up.

Noah finds it difficult to nod yes.

“But all these kids?” he asks desperately.

Elisabeth’s insides twist. Every time Noah goes acting on Eva’s orders, he comes back as a more tortured man, torn between his duty and his conscience. Elisabeth pinches her lips from the pain of seeing her husband like this and failing to protect him.

“You will succeed this time, and no one will get hurt” she tries to encourage him. “Then, after the apocalypse, we will be here forever, together.” Elisabeth manages to give him a faint smile. 

“You, me, and Charlotte.”

“You, me, and Charlotte,” Noah repeats and nuzzles his head into Elisabeth’s shoulder, inhaling the smell of her hair before he leaves. He hugs her tight as if this is the last time, and kisses her temple. They release from the hug, still holding hands but looking differently at each other now. A little more hopeful.

Elisabeth accompanies Noah till the end of the road to send him off. As she walks back towards the house, she hears two doves cooing at each other on a tree. She smiles to herself, says a little prayer for Noah, and decides to go to a nearby bakery to buy some warm rolls for breakfast.

Bartosz wakes up to the smell of burnt dough. He rubs his eyes and gets up to follow its source. He finds Silja standing in the middle of the tiny kitchen, holding a frying pan with one hand, a spatula with the other, slightly shaking the ingredients inside the pan. A lidless flour jar, a milk carton, and several eggshells spread around her. 

Bartosz decides to stand on the threshold and watch Silja cooking. Next to the stove, a couple of more-than-half-burned crepes stacked on top of each other. She loosens the one she is making with the spatula and peeks underneath. The full concentration on her face with her eyebrows furrowed made Bartosz smile.

“Hey,” he says, feeling comfortable enough to keep his smile at her.

Silja startles and glances sideways to see Bartosz at the threshold, wearing one of Noah’s old t-shirts that Elisabeth gave him last night. It fits him surprisingly well and he looks... surprisingly fit as well, his muscles looking like he chopped a considerable amount of wood for Erit Lux.

“Good morning,” Silja says, a little embarrassed to be seen in this mess.

“Do you need any help?” Bartosz's smile is widening into a relentless grin.

“I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong,” she whines at him as she slightly rocks the pan back and forth. “They are all burned.”

Bartosz gets inside and stretches out his arm to take the handle from Silja’s hands. The brushes of their fingers during this exchange gives Silja chills.

Bartosz moves back a little to look at the stove panel.

“No wonder they are burnt. You turned the heat all the way up,” and he quickly flips over the crepe to find it in dark brown shade.

Silja flushes with embarrassment. She feels like she fails miserably in her first step to winning Bartosz. These crepes will make his stomach sick, and certainly not lead the way to his heart. 

Bartosz slips the burnt crepe on top of the others and switches the frying pan to another burner. He catches Silja’s eyes sideways and turns towards her, leaving the pan on the stove.

“Hey,” Bartosz gives a shy smile to Silja’s sullen expression. 

“It’s okay. They just need a little less heat and a little more time.” 

Silja chuckles and shakes her head slightly. She remembers that she is here with Bartosz, the smartass of equivocal remarks of their relationship. She catches his eyes and moves her head up and down to indicate that she got the message. 

Bartosz chuckles back at her attentiveness. He looks appreciatively at her face and notices a little flour on her hair. 

It’s very distracting, this floury hair. Her hair, her eyes, the corners of her lips which look like they’re about to turn upwards at any moment are all very distracting. They have a mission here. One can not possibly waste time cooking crepes and wiping flour on girls’ hair.

Torn between reaching out to touch the floury strand, or leaving it as it is, Bartosz fixes her gaze on Silja’s hairline. Silja notices this awkwardness and feeling awkward herself, she blinks at him quizzically.

He turns over to the stove with a breathy sigh without saying anything. He holds the pan’s handle but immediately lurches back. He waves his hand in pain as Silja tries to make sense of what just happened and realizes that the pan’s handle was directly over the heat.

She rushes to open the tap and grabs Bartosz’s hand by the wrist to put it under cold water. Bartosz winces and shakes his head frustratedly, disappointed at his recklessness.

Silja is opening and closing cupboards and drawers one after another to find some first aid cream. To her luck, she finds a nearly spent tube in one. 

“Give me that,” she says as she pulls Bartosz’s hand under the water, wipes it gently with a clean kitchen cloth. She squeezes the tube over his palm as Bartosz’s contemplative look falls on her face. 

She rubs the cream in swift circular movements to his calloused palm which is slightly turning pink. Her pace gets slower and slower as she becomes mesmerized by the feeling of rubbing his hand. Bartosz enjoys this treatment for a minute but then he feels a little uncomfortable.

“Who wants some pretzel and warm rolls?”

Elisabeth extends her head to the kitchen and finds herself the strange sight of messy counters, a burning stove, and running water accompanied by the smell of burnt crepes. Silja and Bartosz are standing in the middle of this mess, their heads bent and almost touching, her hand on top of his.

Silja jumps guiltily. She shoots a startled glance at Bartosz who looks thoughtful until he realizes Elisabeth’s presence. They both freeze and stare at an equally shocked Elisabeth with wide eyes. 

“What happened here!?” Elisabeth asks and shrugs in disbelief.

Bartosz attempts to respond. He nods towards the burnt crepes.

“Crepes. Do you want some?” He asks sheepishly.

****

Bandaging Bartosz’s hand and cleaning up the mess in the kitchen cost Elisabeth, Silja, and Bartosz a lot of time. They rush to the main entrance of Gesamtschule Winden as the bell rings for the lesson break. Elisabeth tells them to wait while she submits the forms to the principal. 

The corridors of the school are flooding with a noisy crowd of students. They are all wearing at least one staple of 80s fashion: Soft sweaters, baggy jeans, plaid shirts, and flannel-lined jackets pass one by one before their eyes. Bartosz and Silja are also dressed in full 80s attire. Silja is wearing a striped top and a denim button skirt with white sneakers while Bartosz is sporting a flannel shirt, stonewashed jeans, and heavy black boots. 

“What do you think? Can we find them?” Silja asks without lifting her gaze from this fashion show happening right before their eyes.

“Who?” Bartosz asks, overwhelmed by the colors and the amount of crazy hair he is subjected to.

“Our parents!” Silja marvels around. “They should be around here. Well... your mom and my mom at least.”

“I don’t know, I once saw a picture of my mom with my grandma but it was long ago. It should be difficult to find them without knowing, don't you think?” He answers and the moment he finishes his sentence, he sees a girl whose brown hair is made into a ponytail. Her heart-shaped face is spotted with light freckles and she has a mischievous sparkle in her almond-shaped eyes. 

“Then again...” he mutters. “I’m confident that this girl is related to you.”

The moment Silja turns her head, someone calls the brunette girl _Hannah_. Silja freezes in her spot as she watches her walking towards the voice. She is her mother. It is the first time she sees her alive and well.

Silja can’t remember how many times she made Elisabeth tell her about her mother. Even though Elisabeth was around ten when she lived on the same timeline with Hannah and even though she barely interacted with her during that time, she told stories about her. No matter how uneventful they were, Silja listened to each over and over. Her favorite was the one where Hannah asked Elisabeth where the toilet was. It was a parent-teacher meeting and they came to the school with Ulrich. It was early in her pregnancy but she was already having bladder problems. Elisabeth told Silja that she accompanied her mother. Afterward, Hannah gave her a warm thank you and patted her head. 

“I hope I’ll have a kind child like you,” she told Elisabeth.

Silja knows that her baby did not survive. Hannah had a miscarriage on the day of the apocalypse. That’s when old Egon took her to the 1950s. There, she met her father but things didn't go well for them and they fell apart. Eva got Hannah under her wings until her death. Hannah lost her life giving birth to Silja due to complications. Little Silja was sent to Elisabeth where she found refuge. Elisabeth lost her baby around this time too and they became each other's designated mom and daughter.

The school bell rings and disrupts Silja’s thoughts. Now, she looks at Hannah walking to the opposite side, passing directly in front of her to enter a classroom. She follows her path with her eyes. They were filling up with tears.

“Silja?” Bartosz softly touches her arm. He notices Silja’s watery eyes and ill posture. He glides his hand from her arm to her back.

Elisabeth catches up with them. She tells that everything is set and they can join the classes, starting with her art class right now. Then, she points to the classroom Hannah just entered. 

Bartosz and Silja don’t say anything but turn to follow other students. Elisabeth, walking behind them, notices Bartosz’s bandaged hand stroking Silja’s back when they slowly make their way to the studio.

*****

The art studio is a large rectangular shaped classroom flooded with natural light. In the middle of the room, there is a long rectangular table which is formed by smaller school desks. On top of it, a variety of objects ranging from colorful crumbled papers to trumpets lie along. The rectangular table is surrounded by blank canvases on easels.

The students come standstill without knowing what to do in front of this view. Elisabeth catches up with the group and comes in front to give the brief of their project.

“Hello everyone. As you can see we’re more crowded than usual, that’s because you will work on this project with other grades, and I will be your supervisor.”

“For those who don’t know me, I’m Elisabeth.” Elisabeth points to herself and then stretches out her hands to introduce new students.

“We also have new students with us. Bartosz and Silja. I’m sure you will help them around for the first couple of days.” 

The sudden gaze of their classmates makes Bartosz and Silja a little self-aware. Silja is trying to catch her mother’s gaze as secretively as possible while Bartosz looks around to find his mother Regina. He can’t. But he did find another person. Charlotte Tannhaus is looking at them with slight boredom in her eyes.

“Okay now choose a viewpoint and get to your easels,” Elisabeth dictates. “Don’t worry about time because we will be working on this till the end of the semester.”

The studio is suddenly filled with the hum of students who take their positions. While Bartosz can not figure out what to do, Silja leaves him quickly and follows Hannah. Bartosz finds himself on one side of the table, between Charlotte Tannhaus and a tall blonde boy who seems to have hurt his nose. Silja is across the other side next to her mom. 

“What happened to your hand?” the tall boy asks Bartosz, as Bartosz attempts to catch Silja’s attention across the table.

“I burned it,” he says. “What happened to your nose?”

The tall boy snorts in derisive laughter. “I burned it too,” he mocks him and looks aside with a sneer of ridicule to check on a girl next to him to see if she’s laughing.

That girl doesn’t laugh but Silja hears a chuckle from Hannah. She follows Hannah’s gaze and finds a tall blonde boy at the end of her line of sight. Next to him, a frustrated Bartosz is rolling his eyes and making faces towards her.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

Silja turns towards the direction of the sound, a little dumbfounded. Hannah is looking at her curiously.

“Um,” Silja speaks in a low voice. “I...,” she mumbles. “He…,”

“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in him,” Hannah stares at her. “You look cute together.”

Silja lets go of a nervous chuckle. She still can’t believe that her mother is talking to her. About Bartosz.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk about it,” Hannah continues. “Sometimes you just keep things to yourself,” she says and turns her gaze at the tall boy next to Bartosz.

Meanwhile, Bartosz, having difficulties painting without using his dominant hand, looks around the studio. The jerk that mocked him is now chatting with his girlfriend whose blonde hair is tucked back with a banana clip. As far as he can see, Silja and Hannah are chatting too. He looks over his left to see what is Charlotte doing and notices another girl trudges her way to the studio. She is wearing thick glasses and her headphones are sweeping her light brown curls away from her face. 

Bartosz has a ticklish feeling all over his body. He feels like he knows her. He follows her with his eyes as she walks towards Elisabeth’s table. After a small exchange between them, she turns back and walks towards his direction. Bartosz notices Elisabeth’s thoughtful gaze at him. She is slightly bowing her head behind this girl. 

_Mother._

Regina settles in her easel next to Charlotte. Charlotte welcomes her friend with a silent smile since Regina immediately puts her headphones back again after her exchange with Elisabeth. 

The rest of the lesson is mostly uneventful with Elisabeth occasionally warning the tall blonde boy and his girlfriend for making noises.

As students leave the classroom one after another after the bell, Hannah offers Silja to go to the canteen together and she invites “her friend” too. Silja dashes after Bartosz to find him in the schoolyard. He is sitting on a bench, gazing blankly at a curly-haired girl, sitting alone on another bench across, listening to a walkman.

Silja calls his name but Bartosz doesn’t respond. She waves at him but he ignores her. Not wanting to keep Hannah waiting, Silja sighs and gets a little irritated, but eventually goes back.

Bartosz is looking at his mother. 

_She is adorable,_ he thinks. _Who can possibly dare to break her heart?_

He wants to talk to her but doesn’t know how to start the conversation. 

_Hello, what’s up? I’m new in school, wanna hang out?_ No, very informal. 

_Good afternoon, Do you know this schoolyard used to be a stud farm in the 1900s?_ Informative but unnecessary.

 _Hi mom. I missed you. I’m so happy you’re alive and well. I love you so much._ Heartfelt, yet shocking.

As Bartosz struggles, Regina pulls her headphone out and takes out the cassette tape from her walkman. She shakes the tape a little, then takes out the batteries, and puts them back in. Bartosz understands that something is wrong with the walkman from her troubled face. He gets up from his seat and walks to Regina’s bench.

Regina sees a shadow falling on her walkman and lifts her head to see a boy with dark hazel eyes looking at her. His eyebrows are pulled together upwards. He seems quite concerned with something.

“Do you need help with your walkman?” 

Regina doesn’t say anything but blinks at him behind her glasses. He does sit next to her, anyway. 

“I have the same model, let me take a look.”

Regina gives her walkman to Bartosz and sits silently beside him as he examines the device. He knows exactly what the problem is. 

He knows because he has fixed this walkman before.

There was a phase around Grundschule when Bartosz thought bringing a walkman to the school was cool. He asked his mother for a walkman, and she offered Bartosz the old one she still kept around, along with some mixtapes she had recorded. Bartosz jumped on the occasion thinking: the more retro, the better.

“Sometimes it gets stuck, but your father knows how to fix it,” she said as she was handing him the walkman. “He fixed it for me every time I had problems with it. You better ask him about that.”

Bartosz remembers going to his father’s study to find him buried in his books. Those days, there was little time left for an exam that Aleksander had to pass. He was studying for his energy systems specialty. 

Bartosz stood next to his father’s desk and waited for him to finish the line he was reading. Aleksander noticed his son’s presence. Bartosz’s respectful demeanor made him smile. 

“Bartosz?” Aleksander called him curiously while glancing sideways at him.

Bartosz put the walkman on his desk and asked for his help. Aleksander showed him how to fix it and gave him another mixtape that Regina recorded for him when they were young. 

“Start with this,” he said when he was putting the cassette tape onto his son's small hands. The tape had a heart-shaped sticker as its label.

“Can you reach that part here?” Bartosz points out a tape head. His bandaged hand can not reach there.

Regina picks the walkman and follows his instructions. At the end of the break, her walkman is working again. 

“Thank you,” she says, and an appreciative smile twinkles in her eyes.

Whereas, Bartosz wants to cry. Cry so bad. 

His breathing slows, as the memories of his mother’s affection and his father’s pride smile take over his thoughts. He can give the world to go back to these times. Well— _he can go back._ But he can never relive those moments again.

Bartosz misses them.

 _Hell, I even miss my father,_ he admits.

He slouches on the bench, his chin starts to tremble. Regina, noticing his distress asks him if he’s okay. He nods yes and gets up. 

“What’s your name?” Regina asks behind him.

He utters _Bartosz_ without turning back and stumbles his way to the main entrance hiding his face.

A set of eyes are spying on Regina and Bartosz from afar, while all this is happening. A lean young man with average height, who looks slightly older than his subjects of interest has watched this scene carefully from beginning to end.

He follows Bartosz with his piercing blue eyes, while his eyebrows are frowned down in irritation. 

As Bartosz is staggering his way back to school and Regina walking not so far behind him, another boy with a round face approaches the young man at the narrow passageway he’s standing. 

“Hey, Obendorf,” the young man calls him.

Obendorf nods to him and pulls something from his bag wrapped in newspaper. The young man gets the delivery and unwraps the newspaper just enough to see if everything is set.

“Is that all?” He asks Obendorf.

Obendorf nods yes. He shoots quick glances around and lowers his head to whisper something.

“The house was crowded, this is all I can manage to get without anyone noticing anything. Did you bring it all?”

The young man sighs and reaches out to his bag. He pulls out some Deutsche Mark and drops them all onto Obendorf’s chubby hands. As Obendorf is counting his money, the young man’s attention has returned once again to the boy he saw with Regina who is now waiting with her near the entrance while two other girls are approaching them. 

“Obendorf,” The young man calls, nodding towards the group. “Do you know this boy next to Regina?” He asks.

Obendorf turns back to see who he’s talking about. He sees Regina and Hannah chatting with the newcomers.

“No,” Obendorf shrugs. “He and the girl with the striped top just started today,” he says as he tucks the money on his dirty jeans’ pockets. 

“They told us their names only. I think his name was Bartosz.” 

“Bartosz?” The young man repeats. His frown deepens as if he wasn’t expecting that name.

Obendorf is about to turn back but the young man grabs his shoulder. He is upset about something. He reaches out to his bag again and takes out some more money.

“If you can give me any information about this guy...” the young man utters, “I can give you more,”

The prospect of new money makes Obendorf’s eyes shine. He grabs the banknotes from the young man’s hand and sneers at him with amusement.

“Consider it done,” he says and rushes off to school.

The young man looks towards the entrance in the hope that he can see Regina one last time, but she isn’t there. He turns around and takes hesitant steps away from the school. He can’t be with her right now, but he has a way to ease the pain. 

The young man reaches for his bag. He takes his walkman out and puts a cassette tape into it.

It has a heart-shaped sticker as its label.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taube is Dove in German. Ahh! close enough.
> 
> Ah, The First Aid Trope. A classic :)
> 
> Bartosz can detect people’s younger selves much better than he thinks.
> 
> What songs do you think should be in the mixtape that Regina recorded for Aleksander?
> 
> I’ll give my two cents on one song: I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls. The lyrics suit their current situation quite well (even though Regina probably didn’t think she’d be ghosted when she recorded it, but anyway…) but she was actually listening to it in canon too. (S1E7)
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and your comments are more than welcomed :)


	4. Chapter 4

It was one lazy afternoon in 1953 where Claudia was waiting for her student Helge at the doorsteps of the Tiedemann family home. She was bouncing her leg up and down, and sending annoyed glances at her wristwatch while her poodle Gretchen was dropping a stick on her feet once every two minutes for her to throw it back. 

_If he’s late, I’ll be late_ , Claudia was thinking and Claudia would hate if she’d be late. Especially today.

Since Tronte and his mother Agnes had rented rooms in their family home, Claudia was waiting for this day. It had the perfect conditions: There was no school next day, her father, Egon, would be in the police station all night and her mother and Agnes explicitly told them that they didn't want anyone in the house while they were cleaning and cooking.

Perfect time for a first true date with Tronte, and maybe a first kiss, and maybe more. 

But Helge was late.

As she saw her young tutor stumping his way into the front garden, she gave out a breath of impatience.

“I’m sorry,” Helge muttered and put some coins on his young teacher’s open palm.

After the lesson, Claudia was pulling for Helge to hurry up while she was putting on her black leather shoes. She was about to reach for the handle when her mother, Doris, called out to her and told her that she should take Gretchen too. She tried to protest in a useless attempt, but the decision was already made. Claudia and Helge took the poodle’s leash and got under her mother’s feet. 

Helge was a quiet child. He was two years younger than Claudia and having a bad crush on her. His quietness was not in his favor and now that there was another boy in town whom Claudia was very interested in, his chances were getting slim. He was thinking about a way to open up to her as they were walking down the forest path. His planning didn’t go far, because he was drawn out of his thoughts by Claudia’s sudden shriek.

“Gretchen!” She shouted behind her poodle. She most likely sensed something and got rid of her leash in a panic to run away.

Helge stared at Gretchen, getting away from them each second, and running deep into the woods.

This might be his chance to prove his affection to Claudia. He dashed after the poodle, ignoring his heavy backpack hitting on his back at every step.

After an exhausting run and some research deep into the woods, Helge located Gretchen in the bunker. This was his place to run away too when things got tense with his mother.

“Come, Gretchen,” Helge called the poodle but Gretchen cowered down in one corner, barking at Helge in distress. Fearful of letting her go away, Helge closed the door. Gretchen was pacing and jumping and circling around herself, troubled by something that Helge didn’t quite understand.

Then the ground started to shake and the lights flickered. Helge thought it was an earthquake but in fact, a hole was appearing inside the bunker out of nowhere. Helge gaped at this scene in surprise. The hole was large enough for him to see what was on the other side. 

An equally shocked middle-aged woman with auburn permed hair was gaping back at Helge and even more at the small poodle.

But how did she get here?

*****

As far as Claudia remembers, she likes numbers. She’s always liked them on her school reports and then on her transcripts. She liked them as she began earning her own money, first as a tutor to young Helge, and now as the first female director of AKW Winden. 

She likes looking at them, analyzing them, and making projections about them. But now, she feels like she’s betrayed by them. 

Because these numbers don’t add up. 

Her predecessor, Bernd Doppler told her about the accident that happened the summer before. He told her that the radioactive spill was contained and the materials stored in a safe place underground. It was then that Claudia hired a young man called Aleksander to weld a metal door at the passageway between this underground place and Winden Caves. Everything should be set. But it isn’t. 

Because these numbers don’t add up. 

Claudia draws her portable recorder out, puts a new tape, and presses the record button.

“A sample taken from the area of the accident in ‘86 shows inconsistencies in their energy field but in many aspects, constitutes with Englert, Brout and Higgs’ calculations in 1964,” 

She pauses her recorder and takes a deep breath before recording her next words. 

“If these data are correct, then… it will be a global sensation,” Claudia carefully chooses her words because she doesn’t want to get carried away before conducting on-site experiments. 

She stops her recorder and looks at her desk watch. It’s almost dawn. She sits back on her chair and stretches her arms. Her gaze shifts to the family photograph. 

She lets go of a deep sigh. It’s been weeks since she spent an evening with them. 

_After this, I’m taking a break,_ Claudia tells herself, as she calls home to leave a quick message to say that she won’t be able to come home for another couple of days. Her voice has a guilty timber as she records the message. Afterward, she gets her equipment, writes a small note for her assistant Jasmin, and heads out.

The night shifters are mostly done with their work and most of them have already left facilities as Claudia passes from the large atrium. There is almost no one around apart from some cleaning staff and... a familiar face to Claudia.

Aleksander Köhler is walking past the atrium from the other direction as he notices Director Tiedemann’s waving hand. He stops hesitantly in his spot and waits for the worst. She should have heard about him from Regina.

“Hello, Aleksander,” Claudia blinks at him. She looks way more temperate for a mother whose daughter got ghosted.

Aleksander greets her back and looks down at his shoes. Claudia is amused by his shyness. She’s seen Aleksander’s dead-on stare and his tenacity when it comes to work, but she’s never seen him shy. 

Claudia assumes Aleksander’s discomfort arises from her potential question about his relationship with her daughter Regina. If he thinks that, then he is right. Because that’s exactly what Claudia will ask.

“How are things going with Regina?” Claudia asks, enjoying every second of observing his face turning pink.

“Hmm…” Aleksander mutters. “We….I…”

“She is very fond of you, you know,” Claudia interrupts and shakes her head a little bit.

“Well...she doesn’t tell me anything,”— _and it’s been a while since I’ve seen my child,_ her consciousness whispers— “but I feel like it.”

Aleksander stares blankly at Claudia’s face as a lump comes and sits on his throat. He swallows back his guilt and manages to utter:

“I’m very fond of her too.”

“Good,” Claudia comments. “Be good to her, she is a very precious soul.”

Aleksander nods yes. In his amateur kind of way, he tries his best to take care of Regina even if it means to be away from her. The fact that this precious soul has changed him in every possible way, baffles him at any available moment. He wasn’t expecting to feel like this when they first met. But apparently Regina was way more courageous to experience new feelings than Aleksander would ever be. Maybe that’s why his lies became harder and harder to bear each day and they forced him to make a decision.

“I’ll work hard to be worthy of her, Director Tiedemann,” Aleksander says, back to his usual self-assured mode.

“I’m sure you will,” Claudia answers and without saying anything further she walks away in rushed steps.

*****

After his shift, Aleksander reaches the steps of his chosen sanctuary. He looks down and nudges the handouts that piled up on his way with the tip of his scruffy trainers.

_The Truth Will Set You Free: join our church meetings._

_Lies Well Disguised: use our detergent even for your dirtiest lies._

_Don't Hide If You Know Something: call the police if you know anything about Mads Nielsen’s disappearance._

He lets out a big sigh. 

_Who on earth leaves leaflets at an abandoned building?_

As he enters inside, he turns on his flashlight since it is still dark. Even though this place has many rooms and not one but two taps with running water, it doesn’t have electricity. 

The flashlight flickers over the stone steps as Aleksander is going up to his “room”. This is a rectangular room with natural stone walls that are deformed here and there to expose old wirings. It also has maple floor panels, some of which are detached on their joints. Aleksander has chosen this room because it is the farthest from the main road and it has only one broken window that he had to cover with newspaper.

He puts his bag on an old office table and takes out the latest package he got from Obendorf. He unwraps the newspaper covering it to find a dozen cassette tapes. 

He grabs a bite from his sandwich that he took from work and puts one tape which is labeled Elementarteilchenphysik* into his walkman.

He finds the corresponding chapter in his photocopied notes and follows them with the audio lesson. However, his flashlight is sabotaging his efforts by flickering at a crazy rate. Frustrated by this, Aleksander turns it off and decides to listen only, but his walkman gets jammed not long after.

Trying to understand the strange phenomena around him, Aleksander takes off his walkman and looks around the almost empty room. His mattress is on one corner untouched from the previous day. A plastic washbasin is sitting on another, with his recently washed clothes hanging over a plastic rope that crosses the threshold. Everything looks normal until the ground rumbles. 

Aleksander, thinking that an earthquake hits Winden, gets his flashlight and immediately drops to the ground to get under the table. The shaking lasts a couple of minutes and after it's over, he comes eye to eye with a poodle that seems like she is just beamed into the room. She looks at Aleksander and waves her tail gaily as if she doesn’t care a bit for her scruffy looks.

Aleksander bends his neck forward to make sense of what’s happening. To his surprise, the poodle bends her neck too and stares at him. He chuckles out loud in the absurdity of all this and stretches his arm to check the poodle's collar. Nothing is written on it. No name, no address. 

Aleksander crawls out and stands on his knees. He is looking down at his new roommate with his hands on his neck. 

“What to do with you?” He asks the poodle. She doesn’t respond but seems very interested in his half-eaten sandwich.

“Are you hungry?” He asks again and gives out his only meal until his next shift. After she eats, she yawns and snuggles in his feet.

They sleep together as the first rays of sun begin bouncing off the maple floors. 

*****

Regina was happy because she was seeing that dream again in which she is in the woods. Not the scary one that replays the horrible torture she was subjected to in the hands of Ulrich Nielsen, but the happy one. The one that she was with Aleksander.

Aleksander and Regina were sitting on a log in the woods, sitting face to face, their legs and arms intertwined. Aleksander was smiling at her in that way which made her heart skip. His dimples were showing faintly just over the corners of his lips and his eyes were looking like they have never seen such a beautiful thing before.

They were lying down on the hay ground. Aleksander gave Regina his jacket so that the hay would not sting her back. He opened up his one arm to allow her to snuggle into his chest. They were looking at the passing clouds and a waxing gibbous afternoon moon between tree branches. 

Regina could feel Aleksander’s heartbeat under his shirt and his slow breaths moving the small strands of her hair. After a couple of seconds, however, something terrible happened which never happened before. Aleksander’s heartbeat got slower and slower and then stopped almost and the strands of Regina’s hair weren’t moving anymore. She had a cold shiver all over her body. In one swift motion, she lifts her head up to look at her boyfriend. His eyes were blank and unresponsive. Aleksander was dead. 

Regina screamed her lungs out.

She wakes up panting and shaking her head crazily like she wants to remove the brutal image of her dead boyfriend in front of her eyes.

As soon as she takes control of her breath, she sits up on her bed. A million thoughts are passing by but slowly only one of them takes over her mind:

_What if Aleksander’s dead?_

She has reasonable doubt to think that way. After all, she was the one who cleaned his wound. A wound that was caused by a gun. Regina opens her mouth in horror but no voice comes out. There is only one thought that occupies her right now:

_What if his past caught up with him? What if Aleksander’s dead?_

*****

While deciding to come here, Bartosz hasn’t thought much about the brutality of an 80s high school social caste system. But now he lives it almost every day and his lunch breaks are more relentless than ever.

The levels of this system are rigid and changing your status is almost impossible. There are the smart kids, art nerds, athletes, atari geeks, cool boys, bullies like Ulrich wearing the disguise of a cool boy, and unfortunately losers, like his beloved mother Regina.

And then there is Charlotte Tannhaus. As far as Bartosz comprehends, she has an aura of coolness around her that makes her exempt from every categorization possible. Charlotte’s father, Noah, called her a nerd one time but she is not so easy to decipher. Even the bullies don’t want to mess around with her. 

She is amazing, his granddaughter. Knowing Noah and himself, Bartosz knows that her coolness is the work of Elisabeth and Silja. None of them seem to have difficulty finding the order in this system as Bartosz does. Elisabeth is the hippie vibed art teacher and Silja is her social butterfly niece who can talk to anyone without feeling any pressure.

Bartosz passes by Silja’s table as she is joyfully talking with Hannah over their chocolate puddings. Next to her table, Charlotte is sketching her apple on her notepad, and the chair across which Regina usually sits is occupied by another person since Regina is absent. Most of the seats are taken in that part of the dining hall and Bartosz makes his way to another table and approaches to an empty seat next to a round-faced boy. 

He seems to be enjoying his meal as Bartosz puts his tray on the table. The boy lifts his head up and after he notices Bartosz, he chokes on his soup. Bartosz, not giving any importance to this, sits next to him and gives him a silent nod with his head.

“Bartosz isn't it?” the boy asks after he wipes his mouth to a paper napkin.

“Yeah,” Bartosz answers. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Jürgen Obendorf,” he says and waits a little like he expects Bartosz to extend the conversation.

Not being accustomed to basic human decency in the high school cafeteria, Bartosz blinks to his face for a couple of seconds and then manages to say thank you to Obendorf.

“So you and the girl”, Obendorf nods with his head towards Silja’s table. “Are you related?”

 _In every sense of the word,_ Bartosz wants to answer, but he nods negatively.

“Hmm..” Obendorf continues, “So where are you from?”

Elisabeth made Bartosz and Silja work on these questions. Silja is supposed to be Elisabeth’s niece and Bartosz is an orphan who Silja’s family took under their wings. They went to the same school but a fire in their school building forced them to transfer to Elisabeth’s school. The previous month, Elisabeth read of a fire incident at one school in a town called Gießen. Elisabeth was happy that Martha's creepy boy didn’t need to go somewhere and damage properties to make their plan seem plausible. There was already an incident in Gießen. So Gießen is their alleged hometown. 

“Gießen,” Obendorf scoffs. “Never heard of it. What is your family name?”

“Niewald,” Bartosz answers swiftly. He is feeling disturbed by his lunch buddy’s behaviors, it feels like he’s being interrogated.

“Niewald,” Obendorf repeats as if he wants to keep that information in mind. 

Bartosz suddenly feels a lack of appetite and searches for an excuse to leave the table. Luckily, Silja has already finished her meal and approaches their table to interrupt the conversation.

“We’re going to watch the handball match with Hannah, do you wanna come?” Silja asks without paying attention to Obendorf.

“Yes, coming right now,” Bartosz answers as he gets up as Silja walks back to the exit. Obendorf is looking at Silja in a way that makes it difficult for Bartosz to digest.

“See you around,” Obendorf calls behind Bartosz with a smirk on his face.

Bartosz doesn’t respond.

*****

Elisabeth is sketching for another painting while Bartosz and Silja are back from the handball match and changing in their rooms. Elisabeth realizes that the man she is sketching is resembling more and more to her husband, Noah. Just in the middle of her thoughts for her husband, she hears three knocks on the front door.

Elisabeth rushes to the door and gives a small squeak as she sees Noah’s face from the door window. He is well and looking _happy_ which is a nice change from how she used to see him after his usual work trips.

Elisabeth opens the door to find Noah holding a bouquet of daisies. She takes the flowers from his hand as they greet each other with a warm kiss. Noah nuzzles his head into his wife’s shoulder and inhales the smell of her hair as he always does when he comes back. His chin makes Elisabeth tickle.

“It’s time to shave I think,” Elisabeth giggles and wrinkles her nose. 

“How was your trip?” She asks with glitters in her eyes.

“Good,” he beams back at her. “Pretty good.”

“I saved your grandfather,” Noah blurts out and shakes his head as if he can’t believe what he has achieved.

Elisabeth gives him a quizzical look and then points her two index fingers towards him.

“You mean…”

Noah gets what Elisabeth implies. He opens his eyes wide and his mouth falls open.

“Oh no!” he protests. “Why did you have to remind me?” he whines at her as they walk down the hallway.

Elisabeth giggles and opens the bedroom door.

Inside, Noah tells her all the details. How he finds Helge in the bunker, how he sends him back to his time, and how he even goes back in time to see if everything is set.

“He’s alive,” Noah beams. “Your grandfather is alive.”

Elisabeth is smiling at him when she rests her hand on Noah’s faintly beard-stubbled chin. She fixes her gaze at him and then squints her eyes as if she’s realized something.

“That means...Claudia...”

“Yeah she started time travelling,” Noah explains. 

Elisabeth looks down thinking about Regina. Probably some days will pass before they realize that she’s missing. She was younger than Regina when she lost her mother in the meanders of this time loop, and it was years and years after they met again. Elisabeth can’t help but give an empathic sigh. Noah is quick to understand her distress.

“Hey,” he says. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine.” 

Elisabeth gives him a faint smile and puts her arms around his neck and moves closer. Their foreheads are touching.

“What do you say to a celebration for my latest success?” Noah asks under his eyebrows.

“What do you have in mind?” Elisabeth wonders.

At that moment, they hear the noises coming down from the hallway. Silja and Bartosz have changed their clothes and find themselves face to face. Bartosz is wearing yet another t-shirt of Noah which makes his arms look very fit and it's a distracting sight for Silja.

“I think you should buy new clothes” Silja deadpans but Bartosz is occupied with something else and walks in front of her towards the living room.

“What happened Bartosz?” Silja asks behind.

Bartosz turns towards her and shakes his head a little. 

“Nothing,” he says. “Just…” he’s not sure if he should share this with her.

“On lunch today, this boy asked me some questions about my whereabouts and it felt weird you know? It was as if he was interrogating me,” 

Silja lifts her eyebrows as she settles on a couch. 

“Why would he do that?”

Bartosz shrugs. He doesn’t know how to answer that question.

“In the meantime,” Silja begins, “Hannah told me some things that you might actually find interesting.”

“Such as…” Bartosz utters but before they manage to go into details Noah makes sure that everybody in the house -and in the whole neighborhood- is notified that he’s back. 

“Are you ready to go to the arcade?!” He exclaims and Bartosz jumps a little on his seat.

“Are you trying to kill me?!” Bartosz fumes at Noah.

“If I’d kill you before you’ve made me, how can I be even here, dad?” Noah asks and rolls his eyes as if he’s bored to death.

 _A big reason to not get intimate, if the outcome is you,_ Bartosz murmurs and throws his hands up in frustration.

Elizabeth, watching from a quilted orange armchair, notices that Bartosz doesn’t have the bandage on his hand anymore. 

“You took off the bandage?” she inquires.

“Yeah, we went to Nurse Kahnwald’s office before the match and she said I don’t need it anymore.” Bartosz clarifies.

“That needs its own celebration!” Noah bursts with joy.

“It is decided. We’re going to the arcade!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elementarteilchenphysik*=Elementary particle physics 
> 
> So as you’ve noticed I gave Claudia a different start for her time travel journey. I thought Adam’s World Claudia was already involved with many things and might not be bothered to bury a time machine in the other Claudia’s backyard while there is already a better time machine in Eva’s World. But then again I know nothing about time travel :)
> 
> Gretchen finds Aleksander. They’re best friends now and Aleksander was basically distance learning before it’s cool.
> 
> But Charlotte is the coolest of them all.
> 
> A forewarn for following chapters you might expect some delays unfortunately since the life is catching up on me!
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and your comments are more than welcomed :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where were we?
> 
> Chapter 1: We’re in Eva’s World. Aleksander and Regina are not together in the 1980s. Eva sends teen Bartosz and Silja to check on them. Adult Noah helps them and calls Bartosz “Papa” at every chance.
> 
> Chapter 2: Adult Elisabeth lives in the 1980s and she is an art teacher in Regina and Charlotte’s class. She tells a story about how Aleksander and Regina flirted. Bartosz picks a surname.
> 
> Chapter 3: Noah is stressed before his next mission for Eva. On the morning of their first school day, Silja burns crepes and Bartosz his hand. They see their mothers at school. Bartosz flashbacks and helps Regina with her walkman, a mysterious figure is watching them from afar.
> 
> Chapter 4: Helge and Claudia disappear the same night. Aleksander finds a friend. Regina stresses out. Noah is happy and proposes to go the arcade.
> 
> CW for Chapter 5: brief reference to self harm. It begins with Regina’s section and ends with “….takes a deep breath.”

The arcade that Taubers usually hang around is on the ground floor of Winden-Kino, the movie theater. It is a reflection of 80s aesthetics from ceiling to floor: Pink and green neon lights, checkered nylon carpet, and pastel-colored walls that are decorated with movie posters. The arcade games are just behind the box office from which people can also buy tokens for the machines.

Noah certainly didn’t take into consideration that the day is Friday when he proposed the idea of going to the only arcade in Winden. This place is packed with almost half of the Gesamtschule Winden. Some lucky boys and girls who managed to play a game of Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, or Mario are competing vigorously while another bunch is waiting enthusiastically around them. For the time-traveling quartet, the only game available at that moment seems to be the air hockey.

“Okay. Me and Elisabeth and you two oldies, sound good?” Noah asks amusingly to Bartosz and Silja as he slides a token into the machine.

“Yes!” Silja answers enthusiastically and she takes her place on one side. She notices Bartosz is flexing his hands and squinting his eyes which are lit with a twinkle of mischief. 

“Hit it!” Bartosz smirks at Noah across the table. He falsely assumes that Noah is the one whom he should keep an eye on in this game.

But Noah sucks in this game. He is doing all the wrong maneuvers and holds the striker a little too tight. Taubers don’t give away many goals, however, because as much as Noah sucks at air hockey, Elisabeth thrives in it. 

“10 to 7!” Elisabeth bursts with pride as the machine stops blasting air. She and Noah give each other a high-five.

Bartosz is amazed by her skills. And Silja’s too. She scored most of their goals. 

“How do you know to play air hockey that well?” Bartosz asks Elisabeth and Silja, as Noah slides another token into the machine.

“Oh well, we had one in the cav—” Elisabeth stops talking and looks around to see if someone heard her. It was even hard for Bartosz to hear her in the middle of all this noise, so they were clear. 

“We...” Elisabeth nods at Silja who is beaming back at her. “... practiced with Sijla back in the old days,” Elisabeth explains offering a bemused smile across the table.

“Okey round two!” Silja announces. “You’ll now see what we’re capable of, don’t they Bartosz?” Silja asks but Bartosz doesn’t respond. He isn’t paying attention to the game anymore. His gaze travels across the end of the table, to the crowd in front of the Donkey Kong and to a specific boy with reddish hair and roundish face.

Jürgen Obendorf is fidgeting as he shakes his head and lets go a heavy sigh towards the crowd that forms a circle around Donkey Kong. Bartosz notices that he is also constantly watching the box office near the entrance door. His gut feeling signals that something is off with Jürgen.

 _Who’s he waiting for?_ he thinks.

“9 to 4!” Elisabeth exclaims. 

Silja jerks Bartosz's shirt to interrupt his thoughts. Bartosz turns his head to see her furious face looking behind frowning eyebrows.

“We’re losing here, Bartosz,” she hisses between her teeth. 

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry,” Bartosz says quickly and brings his attention to air hockey for a while. His defense and Silja’s attacks closed the gap between two teams. 

“Okay if we score this, we’ll get ahead,” Silja drops the puck on the table.

For a while, they have been doing great but then Bartosz lifts his head to watch Jürgen again. He is not in front of the Donkey Kong crowd, not even playing any other game but at the entrance, next to the box office with his back towards Bartosz, talking to a guy outside who tries to hold a leash of a bouncing poodle.

Jürgen Obendorf doesn't know how to make sense of the view in front of him. There’s this guy that he knows for a while whom he’s sure was in some shady business before he came to Winden, and he is holding the leash of a very peculiar looking little poodle.

“What? Do you have a dog now?” Jürgen asks Aleksander.

Aleksander purses his lips and sighs heavily from his nose to indicate that he doesn’t enjoy Jürgen’s interrogation.

“She follows me everywhere I go, I thought it was best to buy a leash. What's up with that?” He asks frustratedly.

“Nothing,” Jürgen shrugs, amused by Aleksander’s irritation as he takes out a package from his bag. 

“I need the old ones,” Jürgen says as he handles the package to Aleksander.

“I can give them back on Monday.”

“No, it won’t work for me. My brother is already looking for them. It’s rather urgent,” Jürgen blurts out. “You really should think about buying a cassette duplicator.”

“Yeah right, do you want me to buy a game console with that as well?” Aleksander grumbles as the poodle signals some discomfort towards Jürgen.

“Look,” Aleksander sighs. “I can give them today but you promise you won’t tell anyone where we’ll go.”

Jürgen squints his eyes and thinks about what to do next. He thinks Aleksander is a shady person but Jürgen is also very curious to see where he has been living. After a minute of gut check, Jürgen agrees and the three of them hit the road.

Bartosz, not being able to hear anything but watch every minute of that exchange, decides to follow them. They have already lost the game and thankfully Silja isn’t very annoyed with him in the end, because Hannah arrived at the arcade with her group soon after. Bartosz is pretty sure that Noah and Elisabeth are making out somewhere like teenagers, so nobody will notice his absence. 

The boy that Jürgen is talking to seems familiar. When he saw him, Bartosz almost had the same ticklish feeling like the first time he saw Regina. His arched eyebrows and heavy lidded eyes make Bartosz presume that he is Aleksander, his father.

“Aleks, can you please tell your dog not to bark at me!?” Jürgen exasperates loudly at Aleksander as he irks away from the poodle. 

_Yep. That’s him,_ Bartosz thinks, coming a few meters behind them.

He is shorter than he had imagined. Less intimidating even. Maybe his poodle is a factor because he’s never thought that his dad was a poodle owner. Bartosz remembers that when he was little, he wanted to get a shepherd dog but his parents told him that both of them are away from home frequently and that the dog would feel alone and anxious. Bartosz tries not to think much about what this might mean about his own childhood. 

“Shhhh!” Aleksander silences Jürgen. “Lower your voice!”

After a ten minute walk and a climb for a small hill, they reach the steps of an intimidating old building. This was the company building that Noah has talked about. Bartosz watches Jürgen and his father disappear as they go inside. He sighs heavily and scrubs a hand over his face. 

_Should he go inside and face him?_ This might not be a perfect time. Then again, he is curious to see what his father is up to. Bartosz decides to follow them and observe silently from one corner.

The meagerness of Aleksander’s living conditions strikes Bartosz unexpectedly as he tucks his head behind the clothes hanging by the door. He can only partially see the room, but one glance is enough to understand that this is far from the ideal. It’s evident that Aleksander’s appearance has also been affected by these conditions. His naturally high cheekbones seem even more prominent under the flashlights' bleak reflection. His lank hair is falling on his face and obstructs Bartosz’s view but Bartosz can almost feel Aleksander’s tiredness. 

Aleksander picks a small-sized box wrapped with newspaper and gives it to Jürgen. Bartosz can not understand what it is or what they are talking about but after a small talk between them, Jürgen takes out his velcro wallet and they exchange some money. During all this, the small poodle has been nonchalantly strolling around the room. She smells the corners, Aleksander’s backpack that lays on the ground, the plastic wash basin, clothes hanging by the door and… Bartosz.

The poodle jumps and spins around and turns herself inside out as if she has found her favorite toy. As much as Bartosz enjoys the company of any dog, his newest fan’s enthusiasm might have blown his cover. Without losing time, he jumps up and sneaks out of the building on his toes. 

******

On his way back home, Bartosz thinks about what he has just witnessed in the company.

First of all, his father is still in Winden and obviously hiding. Second of all, he is doing some kind of business with Jürgen Obendorf.

_What was all that about? Was it drugs? Why did Aleksander suddenly stop seeing Regina? Was Obendorf’s weird behavior about getting information for Aleksander?_

With these questions lingering in his mind, Bartosz reaches the white picket fences of Elisabeth’s garden. A slightly concerned Sijla is waiting for him on the steps of the front porch.

“Where have you been?” she asks as she wraps herself a little tighter with her cardigan.

“I walked a little,” Bartosz explains as he swiftly takes off his jacket to put it on Silja’s shoulders.

Silja enjoys this sudden warmth. She closes her eyes and gives out a mmm sound.

“Why are you waiting outside? Where are Noah and Elisabeth?” Bartosz asks as he rubs his hands on Silja’s shoulders a little to keep her warm.

“They are inside,” Silja says as she nods her head slightly towards the door.

“I wanted to give them some privacy.”

“Why outside? Couldn’t you go to your room?” Bartosz asks.

Silja chuckles at Bartosz’s innocent demeanor. 

“They are so loud when they are _intimate_ ,” Silja blurts out and glances her eyes away from Bartosz, as her cheeks flush in heat.

Bartosz’s horror at discovering the intimate details of their son’s private life makes Silja chuckle again. She playfully reaches out to close Bartosz’s open mouth with the back of her hand and gestures towards the stairs of the porch to sit down.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Silja begins wrapping herself a little tighter with Bartosz’s jacket.

“Do you remember when I told you that Hannah has information about Aleksander?” Silja asks.

Bartosz nods. 

“Well, first of all, today in the arcade she told me that she saw him. Just before she arrived,” Silja says seriously.

“I saw him too,” Bartosz says back. “He was doing some business with Obendorf, that boy at lunch.” 

“The one who asked you all these questions, that made you feel like you’re being interrogated?” Silja asks.

Bartosz nods, pursing his lips with discomfort.

Silja sighs an impatient huff and pushes back a strand of hair that falls on her face. 

“Bartosz, I don’t know how to say this but I think your father got involved with something.” Silja discloses.

“Hannah told me that the first time she saw him, he pulled a gun on Ulrich.”

“What?”

“She told me that last year, when she and Ulrich were in the woods to smoke a cigarette, Aleksander came out of nowhere, threatened them with a gun and wanted money from them.”

Bartosz’s eyes widen and his expression goes from disbelief to confusion. 

“And then what happened?”

“Hannah told me that Ulrich scared him off and protected them that day, but not long after that, she started to see Aleksander around Regina.”

Bartosz doesn’t know how to make sense of the things that Silja just told. He already knew about a murder case in Murberg that Aleksander was involved in and his sudden appearance in Winden, but coming from the woods out of nowhere and pulling guns on high school students was a new low. 

“Did she tell anybody else about this?” 

“They went to speak with Egon but he took no notice and they continued to see Aleksander near Regina until recently.”

Bartosz doesn’t respond. His eyes look sad and tired. It’s way past midnight, they need to go to sleep.

“I’m sorry,” Silja says.

“I just. This is a completely different person that I’ve got to know, you know. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Silja’s one hand finds its way on Bartosz’s back. She pets the ridge of his spine and opens a way to wrap his hunched back with the half of the jacket.

Bartosz forces a smile and leans in close. He notices a faint flush on Silja’s neck which slowly climbs up to her cheeks. 

Bartosz resists the urge to rest his head on the cavity of her neck where the pink flush the most. 

He swallows.

“What are you doing here, you love birds?”

Noah looks at his parents from the threshold of the exterior door.

Bartosz makes a sound close to grunting as he stands up. He doesn’t have the energy to banter with Noah. Not tonight. He says a crude goodnight to both of them and goes inside.

Noah throws a quizzical look at Silja followed by a question of what was that about.

“Aleksander is here in Winden. Bartosz saw him today.” Silja says.

“Yeah, I know,” Noah responds as they go inside. “The personnel reports from the AKW came today. He never left the job.”  
“What do we do now?” Silja asks.

Noah considers the question for a moment.

“I don’t know. We make them fall in love again perhaps?” He murmurs. 

Silja sighs. “Alright then.”

 _As if it is the easiest thing in the world_.

“Noah? Are you coming to bed?” Elisabeth’s voice calls him back into the bedroom.

 _Oh God, Maybe they have earplugs somewhere in the bathroom_ , Silja thinks.

*****

Regina looks at her sullen reflection in the bathroom mirror. It is as if her whole face is submitted to gravity and the worst thing is, she doesn’t have any more tears left to cry. 

Everything goes mad and everything hurts. So for her, it doesn’t make any difference if she hurts herself a little more. 

She opens one drawer and searches for a box that she has long forgotten where she left. But when her fingers reach to the embossings of a box and pull it out, it is as if she has never left it there. 

This is a pink plastic box with embroidered hearts on it that can be found in any retail shop as a manicure / personal care set for teenage girls. She opens it to find an object and rolls up her sleeve.

She looks at the faded red lines that cross her wrist. It’s been a while since she’s been there, in a world that abandons her completely and makes her feel alone.

She takes a deep breath. 

_Alone?_

But again, everyone is alone. Her mother, her grandfather, Charlotte, her lost friend Mads Nielsen, hell…his brother Ulrich… everyone and anyone walking this path of life is doing that alone. Regina realizes that even in death people are completely alone and no one can accompany anyone. She puts the object in the box and closes it.

Aleksander? Is he dead? Is he alive? Does it really worth hurting herself and letting this mystery slip into the darkness? In any case, she needs something. Something to occupy her mind that might actually help her understand who he is and most importantly, who she is.

One thing she knows already. As she looks at her reflection in the mirror, she knows that she is better than this and _deserves better than this_.   
Regina opens the tap and splashes cold water on her face. If this life is a challenge, then she accepts it.

Regina goes down the hallway and puts on her shoes to go out. She opens the door to come face to face with her grandfather looking worse than ever and realizes at least three police cars in the background, parked down the road.

“Regina…” Egon manages to say. “Your mother is missing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for still being around and reading the story.  
> How did you find it?  
> Your comments are more than welcomed :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Lemonade:  
> Bartosz finds Aleksander’s hiding place and his shady business with Obendorf. Hannah tells Silja a story. Regina makes a decision. Claudia is missing. Noah and Elisabeth make love. Loud.

The news of Claudia’s disappearance dropped like a bomb in Winden on Monday. The panic of the town makes Bartosz remember the aftermath of Erik’s disappearance back in 2019. In that case, apart from sticking leaflets on shop windows and organizing a security awareness course at the school, the police didn’t do much. But here in 1987, the disappearance of Claudia Tiedemann is a high-profile case.

Ever since the news of her mother’s disappearance has reached the town, police cars patrolling the streets every night, and Regina is escorted by police at her every step. The sudden changes around the school affect everyone, albeit differently.

“If only they had such precautions after Mads disappeared,” Ulrich says with an intention to be heard.

“Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

As much as he dislikes Ulrich, Bartosz knows that he has a point. Being the president of AKW and the daughter of a highly regarded police officer brings the whole town’s attention to this case, and everybody related to it. Especially to Claudia’s family. Especially to Regina. 

Regina has never been the center of attention before in her life. She is the only child of a single mother who is mostly absent. To tell the truth, apart from the bodyguards and the heightened public interest in her family, Regina doesn’t find her situation much more different than before. Her mother is still absent (albeit now, _nobody_ knows where Claudia is), and people are still talking about her behind her back.

The sadness is also still there. It is there when she prepares her grandfather’s breakfast in the morning, even though she knows he won’t eat it. It accompanies her when she is taking the forest road with two police officers following her from afar. It is here today, in the art class, where she is mixing colors. 

The timing of Claudia’s disappearance coincided with an important decision Regina had that very same night. She accepted the challenges of life and put her pink plastic box with sharp objects in the deep end of her deepest drawer. To never open it back again. But she’s never assumed the first challenge would come that soon.

 _If only Aleksander was here_ , she thought. She doesn’t know even if he is alive, he is taken, or he ran away. The last possibility is more painful to accept than any other. Not the least because it confirms the feeling that everybody is running away from her.

“Are you okay?”

Regina is startled by Charlotte’s voice. She realizes that for the past twenty minutes she has been painting the same spot. The canvas at this spot even has worn a little bit.

Regina nods her head without saying anything.

Charlotte smiles at her in a way that makes Regina think that Charlotte understands her. Really understands her. Charlotte hasn’t known her parents, and even though she is always Regina’s cool, collected friend, in her smile, there is something that shows her vulnerability, and her sympathy for Regina. 

“Do you think you can get away from your bodyguards, while we grab some smoothie after school?” Charlotte asks.

Regina pulls down the corners of her mouth and shrugs.

“I… don’t know. I’m not really in the mood,” Regina answers.

“Come on Regina, It’s okay. They can come too if you like them that much,” Charlotte says as she nods her head towards the window, pointing out the police car waiting just outside the schoolyard.

Regina chuckles and nods positively. Her friend’s sympathy makes her tear up.

******

After the class, Charlotte and Regina go to the smoothie place downtown. Charlotte orders for both of them and for Regina’s bodyguards some crazy named smoothies like _Mango Me Crazy_ or _Peach on the Beach._ Because that is how Charlotte is. Finding humor in everything.

“So that’s how mango tastes like,” Charlotte comments on her smoothie. “Well, nothing crazy about it if you ask me.”

Regina makes a noise that is supposed to be a chuckle but it comes out sort of weepy.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Charlotte consoles her friend as she pulls her chair closer to hers.

“It’s just...” Regina reaches out for paper napkins on the table.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she wipes her nose into the crook of a napkin.

“It’s like, there is this organization that abducts people who are closest to me most,” Regina looks at Charlotte over her glasses with red eyes. 

“First there was Mads, then Aleksander and now my mom.” Regina’s tone is now angrier than defeated.

“Who’s next? My grandfather!?” Regina protests and bangs her fist a little too forcefully on the table, it makes her Peach on the Beach spill all around and throws the table off balance.

Bartosz enters the smoothie place as this is happening. He is quick to react and holds the table before it tumbles down. A little Peach on the Beach spills on his checkered shirt.

“I’m so sorry,” Regina says and tumbles into her chair. 

Bartosz brings his hands to his hair and tightens his fingers there. Seeing his mother like this, and not being able to tell her anything is very hard. He wishes that he and Regina would have the same kind of relationship as Silja and Hannah, but Regina is a very private person and Bartosz knows that for her it takes a while to open up to another. Bartosz knows Regina's reservedness from his own childhood.

Bartosz doesn’t remember his mother going out that much with her friends. Charlotte was the only person in Regina’s life that can count as a friend but even with her, socializing was very limited. As much as Bartosz remembers, Dopplers were the only family that came to their house to dine.

Now that he thinks about it, being quiet and private is not only his vibe. His whole family was like this. His mother accepted this melancholy around her, and Bartosz has always assumed that it was about Claudia’s missing, even though this subject had rarely been spoken in their house.

Sometimes, the sadness and melancholy would find a way to spill all over Regina’s daily life, but Aleksander had some kind of a superpower to detect these times and he was always there to console Regina.

 _But not now_ , Bartosz thinks. 

His stomach starts cramping with bitterness. He even misses the cashier’s call for him. Bartosz hastily takes the smoothies, leaves the place after giving an emphatic nod to Regina, crosses the road, and approaches the bench that Silja and Hannah are sitting on.

“Thank you,” Silja says as she and Bartosz exchange a smile.

“I’m telling you, this guy who was around Regina is behind all this,” Hannah says as she takes a huge gulp from her smoothie.

“How do you know?” Silja asks cautiously as if Hannah is about to say something very important.

And she is. Hannah tells them about the time Ulrich and she were in the woods that day. It turns out, Regina was there too.

“When Ulrich told him to fuck off and he didn’t, they fought on the ground a little bit,” Hannah recalls and turns her gaze towards the sky as if she is feeling nostalgic about this fight.

“Ulrich was very brave and actually it was very chivalrous of him to battle on the ground with someone who he knows has a gun to protect me,” Hannah continues telling with starry eyes.

Bartosz’s mouth gapes wide open as he hears this story for the first time. Hannah tells them that Regina was passing by and misunderstood the situation as if Ulrich was bullying someone. In the end, they stopped fighting but Regina refused to come with them and stayed behind.

“It’s very sad what happened to her, but...” Hannah takes another sip from her smoothie.

“Her hatred for Ulrich was absurd. Especially when he was trying to protect us,” she completes her sentence nonchalantly.

“I think this boy knew Regina and her family and played cool for a while until he put his plan into action, which was to be close to her and her fortune,” Hannah says dead serious. 

Bartosz’s stomach is filled with a mix of confusion, anger, and sadness.

_Is this how his parents met? His father using her mother? Why did he stick around 33 years then? And why did he run away this time?_

On their way back home with Silja, these questions fill the mind of Bartosz, along with the answers that his father gave to him on the day of the apocalypse that have no backstories. 

Bartosz and Silja are on the crossroads as they wait for traffic lights to turn green. Silja senses Bartosz’s silent demeanor ever since their chat with Hannah. She looks at him curiously.

Then Bartosz flings an arm around her waist and pulls her close and kisses her cheek. Silja is caught off guard and the only thing she has managed to say was _Whoa_ before Bartosz turns and runs towards the opposite direction they are going, towards a hill over the edge of the woods.

******

After the smoothie place, Regina is told that she will be transferred to a safe house, whose location is only known to the police. She protests very hard on that decision as her bodyguards bring her to the police station for the transfer.

She is told to wait for her grandfather in his office as they bring some of her belongings they picked up from the house. As she waits, she takes a look at what they’ve got. Some pile of clothes are crammed in two big plastic bags and nothing more. No books, no cassettes, nothing. 

Regina wishes she could get hold of her personal items, some cassettes, and maybe the red heart-shaped pillow with _ich liebe dich_ written on its front too. 

_Just for back support. Nothing more_ , she tells herself.

She steps out of the office to find an officer in order to explain her needs but pauses midway. 

It is a quick job. The house is not that far away, and she really needs some time to herself. 

She sneaks outside. Her talent for not being noticeable has come in handy for the first time in her life.

******

Aleksander wakes up late on Monday afternoon. He took the shift on Sunday evening and came back to the building at dawn. He wraps the cover around his shoulders and glances toward the sky. There is a whiteness all around that makes him wonder if rain might be on the way. The idea of spending one more winter in this old building with no heat makes Aleksander shiver. If he wants to get out of this wreck he should find himself a better place and pass the high school equivalency test. 

Aleksander ducks down and checks his stash of money under the table without letting go of the cover. When he stands up, he comes face to face with a stranger inside the room. His cover falls to the ground.

This is the boy Aleksander saw around Regina at the school. He is about the same height as him. He looks quite shaken, his hair is ruffled and his shirt is stained. His nostrils flare which can be an indication of urgency or anger. Or both.

“What are you doing here?” Aleksander asks without blinking an eye.

“I’d like to talk to you,” Bartosz says, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible.

“Good. Let’s talk.” Aleksander sits on a chair, his right ankle rests on his left knee.

“First, I have a question for you,” Aleksander says.

“Why are you using my grandfather’s name?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter.  
> Your comments are more than welcomed :)


	7. Chapter 7

It was a rainy afternoon when Regina came to her suite after a hectic day at work. 

“These engineers are a pain in the ass,” she said to herself as she carefully sat on the leather sofa, holding her tummy with one hand and getting support from the armrest with the other.  
  
There was an energy systems conference at the hotel, and Regina spent all of her last week’s waking hours preparing for it. 

This conference was important for Aleksander as well. He had just started participating in executive board meetings alongside his supervisor at the Power Plant. He was working day and night to show his employers that he wasn’t the metal worker that Claudia hired in favor of her daughter anymore. In a way, this conference was the proof that he can be both a great engineer and a great manager.

Today was the last day of the conference. Regina planned to participate to the closing gala dinner alongside her husband but the past working days and a baby boy on the way made her participation impossible. She told Aleksander to enjoy his evening as she decided to stay back in the suite she stayed in when there was a late night event or a lot of work at the hotel, and that day had both.

She heard the key slipping into the lock as she was trying to reach for a folder on the coffee table. She lifted her head to find her husband carrying the silverware that the hotel staff used when there was an important guest. Regina quizzically looked at Aleksander.

“Why aren’t you at the dinner?” She asked.

Aleksander placed the tray on the coffee table and handed over the folder his wife was trying to reach.

“One week of energy systems has really drained my energy,” he said as he sat next to her on the sofa. He took off his jacket and turned his face towards her.

“Besides, dinner is no fun when you are not there. Would you like to eat?” He asked.

“Yes please, I’m so hungry,” Regina answered, leaving the folder next to her on the sofa. Aleksander served her food and gave feedback about the organization.

“They loved the hotel,” he said. His voice had a prideful timbre. “You really outdid yourself again.” 

“Thanks, but I wasn't alone this time,” Regina said rubbing her belly. She enjoyed watching Aleksander’s crooked smile, the one he reserved whenever he felt totally ecstatic.

“He is a very good boy, do you know?” Regina asked rhetorically and gently tapped her belly.

Aleksander laid back on the sofa and gently guided Regina to do the same after dinner.

“There’s something that bothers me though,” Regina said, faking an annoyed expression.

“Hmm?”

“We keep calling him a ‘good boy’. Don't you think it's time we pick him a name?”

“I told you. Whatever you want is okay with me.” Aleksander said nonchalantly.

“No. You can’t run away with that Aleks,” Regina lifted one eyebrow.

“He is already taking my surname, this one is on you. Sure you have something in your mind?”

Aleksander did have something in his mind. The name of his grandfather, Bartlomiej. He worried however, that it might sound a little foreign and old school. 

“I have something,” Aleksander cleared his throat after a minute of thought.

“Bartosz,” he said in a quiet voice. 

Regina turned her gaze to the ceiling, considering the name.

“I think I haven’t met any Bartosz in my life,” she said and looked back at her tummy again.

“But I can’t wait to meet this Bartosz.”

******

The only sound in the stone-walled room is the sound of sizzling rain that gently taps on the windows. Aleksander’s blue eyes are fixed on his unexpected visitor’s sullen face. It seems that, unlike Aleksander, Bartosz has never been in a confrontation before. He is struggling to stay calm and when he opens his mouth, his voice comes out higher-pitched than usual.

“Why are you hiding here? What are you doing with Obendorf?” Bartosz says ignoring the yaps of Aleksander’s poodle that is obviously taking Aleksander’s side in this fight.

“It’s none of your business. Answer my question.” Aleksander deadpans.

“It is my business alright. Do you think you can come here and threaten people with your gun and take their money as much as you want?”

Aleksander stands up.

“Wha— Is this about those assholes in the woods, I was just seeing Regi—” 

“Don’t—! Even mention her name! You’re lying from the minute you’ve met her, haven’t you!?”

Aleksander freezes on his spot. Even the poodle stops yapping and sulks in a corner.

After a deep breath, Bartosz continues. 

“I know what happened in Marburg. You’ve killed these people and came here to sell drugs.”

“I’m not a murderer, and I'm not sell—.” 

“That is bullshit! Admit it! You came to Winden to hide after whatever the fuck you did in Marburg, and you used Regina for your cover!”

“That’s not true!” Aleksander shouts on top of his lungs. For the first time, he has lost his temper. 

Both of them fall silent. The rain is gaining stamina and patting angrily against the glass.  
  
Aleksander takes a deep breath and mutters some words that are familiar to Bartosz.

“Regina is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Bartosz laughs. He can’t help it. This whole situation feels like one of Noah’s bad jokes. 

“Why are you laughing?” Aleksander snaps.

Bartosz manages to control his laughing and gasps for breath as he sits on the chair where Aleksander got up.

“Why am I—? Because you’ve told me that before, Aleksander. Or maybe I should call you Boris, how about that?”

Aleksander raises his chin up and stares down at Bartosz without blinking an eye. 

“How do you know this name?” He says in a low but rumbling voice, in an effort to hide his identity, his guilt, his shame.

All of a sudden, Bartosz’s face that is twisted with rage and anger fades away. His eyes are widened with grief.

“Because you told me. And I use your grandfather’s name ever since _you gave me that name!_ ” 

Aleksander frowns in confusion.

“I’m your son.” 

Bartosz bursts into tears.

******

Elisabeth and Noah are preparing dinner in their small kitchen as the telephone rings. Noah wipes his hands on the kitchen cloth to answer but Silja is faster than him. She picks up the receiver and sticks out her tongue at Noah who does the same in return.

“Hallo?” She speaks softly into the receiver and glances at Noah.

“Hallo? Silja? It’s Hannah,” 

“Oh, Hannah,” Silja says and with that Noah heads back to the kitchen.

“Who is it?” Elisabeth asks as she rinses the vegetables for the salad. 

“It’s Hannah,” Noah answers, checks the chicken in the oven and turns the temperature down a little.

“Give it forty five minutes and we’re ready,” He says and places a quick kiss on Elisabeth’s cheek. 

Elisabeth smiles without dropping her work at hand. She throws a quick glance at the kitchen clock.

“I hope Bartosz can catch up. Did he say where he was going?” 

Noah makes a sound that is a no, and then snuggles Elisabeth from behind while she is tearing freshly washed leaves of lettuce into a glass bowl. 

“Let me do it too,” Noah says and rests his head on Elisabeth's shoulder. He is inspecting the lettuce meditatively. The warmth of Elisabeth’s grin against his cheek tickles him.

******

“So have you ever kissed?” Hannah asks nonchalantly to Silja over the phone.

Silja is caught a little off guard by the question. Her mind goes quickly to this afternoon, the time when Bartosz pulled her close and kissed her cheek.

 _This counts as kissing,_ she thinks.

“Ye..Yeah,” Silja mutters to the other end of the phone.

Hannah giggles.

“I’m happy to hear that you and Bartosz are okay,” Hannah continues. 

Silja stays silent for a second. She can hear Hannah’s television in the background.

“Why do you think we’re not?” She asks.

“He seemed very distressed when I brought up Regina today, don’t you think?” Hannah's voice has slanted upward at the end.

“Yeah, she is his friend, he’s worried about her,” and Silja is worrying about where this conversation goes.

“Maybe,” Hannah says suggestively. “Then my mother always says that you should keep an eye on the ones you care the most, because there are a lot of people that want nothing but trouble.”

Silja winces her face with discomfort. She doesn’t answer Hannah but gives her an um sound. 

“I just want to say that if you need to be sure of his feelings, I can help you with anything.” 

“I... don’t think I need that, thank you,” Silja responds, getting more and more confused.

“Because that's what my mother says you know, everything’s fair in love and war. If you stick with your love and never give up, everything will come up okay at the end. That’s also how it goes in the movies,” Hannah says. 

The background noises of the television fill the silence between them.

Silja doesn’t know how to further the conversation. She makes up an excuse to end it and hangs up. 

After she hangs up, she caves in to the quilted orange armchair, trying to decide what to think of their conversation.

******

Back in the old stone building, Bartosz is collapsed on the chair, his head down, his hands pressing on his temples as the rain outside becomes more intense.

Aleksander sits in front of him on the cold wooden floor, hugging his knees. He stretches out for an almost empty cigarette package by his bed. He offers one to Bartosz, but he nods no.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” He asks with a cigarette in his mouth, fishing around for the matches.

Bartosz shakes his head no again without looking up.

Aleksander lights up one and puts the last cigarette behind his ear.

“I’m trying to quit,” Aleksander says. “This is my last pack.” 

“Sure it’s not drugs?” Bartosz asks and lifts his head. 

“I’m not doing drugs,” Aleksander says seriously.

“I don’t believe you,” Bartosz says, his voice is rough and weary.

“I know, but I believe you,” Aleksander says.

There is an uneasy silence between them.

“I never told anyone about what happened in Marburg. Bartlomiej -he gestures toward Bartosz- _Bartosz_ is my grandfather’s name, and my real name is Boris Niewald.” 

Aleksander blows the smoke upwards as if he’s pleased to let his secret out of his chest.

“I don’t know how and why you’re here but I believe you.”

“Why are _you_ here? Living under these conditions. Doing all these shady things with Obendorf. Using Regina.”

“I’m. not. using. her.” Aleksander protests by stressing on every single word. He stubs out his cigarette against the empty cigarette pack and stands up.

“Here. This is what Obendorf is helping me with.” Aleksander hands out a box filled with cassette tapes and photocopied notes.

Bartosz looks inside and then looks at Aleksander like he’s lost his mind.

“What the hell are these?”

“Physics, Humanities, Languages. The whole curriculum needed to obtain a high school diploma.”

“Are you telling me that you were exchanging money for _that?_ ”

Aleksander snorts loudly.

“Would you prefer drugs? I’m studying to get my high school diploma.”

“Wha—? Can’t you do it in a less shady way? Why are you living here anyway? Didn’t Regina arrange you some place to live in?”

Aleksander lowers his chin on his chest and stares down at his feet.

“I can’t ask her that. She has done more than I deserved.”

“By the way…” Aleksander lifts his chin up as if he remembers something.

“Your mother is Regina isn’t she?” Aleksander has a giggly sparkle on his eyes.

“Come on man!” Bartosz protests. 

However, he can’t help but chuckle at his father’s sudden happiness.

“Why aren’t you with her?” Bartosz asks, he is more genuinely curious than angry.

After seconds of silence Aleksander speaks:

“I wasn’t prepared for this. For her love, you know. And for feeling like this. She is very... candid, and I’m a liar. I… chickened out on how things would progress.”

Aleksander clears his throat and continues:

“I wanted to pass this exam and prove that I can change. Then I’d stand in front of her and tell her the truth. Marburg, my name, my past, everything,” His voice is trembling.

“I thought if she sees my effort, she’d give me a chance.” 

Bartosz shakes his head as if everything he’s just heard is wrong.

“You’re blowing this man,” he tells Aleksander.

“This is not showing effort. You show effort by being there for her. Especially today.”

Aleksander frowns at Bartosz. He has a concerned expression.

“Claudia is missing. They’re looking for her everywhere.”

Without any hesitance, Aleksander dashes outside to the pouring rain. After a couple of seconds Bartosz pushes back his chair, jumps up and runs to catch up with his father.   


******

Regina hastily picks up her cassette tapes that are scattered around the house. She had a near miss with the rain when she arrived, but now she should change her clothes and put on her rain boots. 

She puts all of her things in her backpack, hangs her guitar over her shoulder, and puts the red heart-shaped pillow in a plastic bag. She puts up her hoodie and opens her umbrella as she steps out.

The raindrops are drumming against the canopy. So much rain is falling that the sound blurred into one long, whirring noise. The small droplets of water are hitting against her glasses. 

“Regina!”

A familiar voice calls her as she locks the door. She somehow convinces herself that this voice which she aches to hear for a long time, is a serendipitous conjuring trick that the rain plays against her.

She turns her back and heads outside. 

Someone approaches across the street. 

Regina’s heart skips a beat. 

He draws nearer.

It's Aleksander.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was (and it will be) an uncharted territory, writing these confrontation scenes, but I hope that it met with your expectations.
> 
> Thank God for Noah and Elisabeth’s love.
> 
> Silja is a clever girl.
> 
> Thank you for stopping by and I’m really hyped to see your comments for this chapter :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where were we?
> 
> Chapter 1: We’re in Eva’s World. Aleksander and Regina are not together in the 1980s. Eva sends teen Bartosz and Silja to check on them. Adult Noah helps them and calls Bartosz “Papa” at every chance.
> 
> Chapter 2: Adult Elisabeth lives in the 1980s and she is an art teacher in Regina and Charlotte’s class. She tells a story about how Aleksander and Regina flirted. Bartosz picks a surname.
> 
> Chapter 3: Noah is stressed before his next mission for Eva. On the morning of their first school day, Silja burns crepes and Bartosz his hand. They see their mothers at school. Bartosz flashbacks and helps Regina with her walkman, a mysterious figure is watching them from afar.
> 
> Chapter 4: Helge and Claudia disappear the same night. Aleksander finds a friend. Regina stresses out. Noah is happy and proposes to go to the arcade.
> 
> Chapter 5: Noah sucks at air hockey. Bartosz can’t concentrate and follows a familiar face. He comes back shaken and finds refuge in Silja. Noah and Elisabeth are loud lovemakers. Regina makes a decision but Egon has other plans for her.
> 
> Chapter 6: Charlotte comforts Regina. Hannah stirs things a little too much. Bartosz dashes to see Aleksander.
> 
> Chapter 7: A flashback to the happy days of Aleksander and Regina. Bartosz confronts his father. Regina escapes and finds someone whom she hasn’t seen for a long time.
> 
> Chapter 8: Oh. Full of Aleksander and Regina scenes

“You make me sick!” 

_ How did I get here?  _

That was the only thought on Regina’s mind before her bully struck a kneecap to her abdomen. 

Minding her own business, Regina came across Ulrich and Katharina on that November afternoon in 1986. Before she managed to utter anything, Katharina started to batter her up. 

The pain was so searing it made her teeth sizzle. She made a move to get away from her abuser but Katharina was quick and pulled Regina up by catching her from her shoulders and shaking her a little.

“Where do you think you’re going?” She hissed.

Regina’s vision was blurry because of the strike and the shaking. The dense woods of Winden transformed into a dark gradient before her eyes. But something was not right. Because one of the trees seemed to be walking towards them.

“Hey! Stop!”

And it was talking.

“It’s none of your business,” Katharina told the tree, which was actually an older boy who was approaching them in short but stiff steps.

“I said stop!” 

The determination in this boy’s voice was enough for Katharina to let Regina go. Not because she got intimidated by him, but because she thought she found a bigger fish to fry.

“And I say fuck off!” Ulrich decided to step up and be his girlfriend’s knight in shining armor.

Regina’s vision got better. She sat up on her knees and looked around to locate her stuff.

“Apologize to her,” the stranger said, locking his gaze on Regina’s abuser and gesturing towards Regina.

_ Don’t bring me into this,  _ Regina thought and managed to look at his face for the first time without any visual impediments.

He looked very...  _ different _ . Certainly not from here. He had a lot of angles on his face and yet his face was also looking very soft. 

Ulrich made a derisive sigh to indicate that an apology was not in their book. Regina wanted to interfere and say something to the stranger like  _ it’s okay  _ and then get the hell out of there but she didn’t. She was intrigued by his calm power and waited to see what happens next.

Not in a million worlds, she could have guessed what happened next.

Because the stranger pulled a gun at her abusers.

_ That’s my cue,  _ Regina thought and started to toddle away from the group without even picking her things.

She managed to hide behind a tree and decided to wait until everybody left to pick her belongings.

Regina didn't know how it began but she saw the stranger and Ulrich wrestling on the ground as Katharina was hitting him wherever she can with her famous kicks. Things got tenser when a gunshot echoed through the trees. 

After a moment of shock, Regina saw Ulrich and Katherina running towards her direction, so she immediately ducked behind the tree. They didn't see her but she managed to hear Katharina’s “ _ You don't tell this to anyone _ ” and Ulrich’s “ _ Is he dead? _ ” as they passed close.

Then there was silence.

Regina turned her gaze to the stranger’s direction as he was whimpering in pain. He made a move to stand on his elbows but he collapsed to the ground. He wasn’t moving. 

This could be Regina’s chance. She could pack her things and creep towards the way she came from. With careful steps, she padded toward the direction of the stranger. She picked up her walkman, her guitar, and all the other belongings in silence. As she was turning back she heard the stranger's moan. She was about to increase her pace but she stopped instead.

_ What are you doing, Regina? He is dangerous. He’s got a gun. _

__ _ He might need help. He’s wounded. _

_ Don’t your mother tell you about “stranger danger” _

__ _ I can’t let him die here. _

Regina turned back and approached the stranger.

About forty minutes later, Regina was looking idly at the boiling kettle, while the stranger whose name she learned Aleksander, was changing into her grandfather’s clothes in the bathroom. Egon was staying with Regina whenever he could and whenever Claudia reminded him to do, so a pair of PJs and daily wear were always available.

Aleksander, wearing a long-sleeved shirt that was way bigger than he should wear, staggered his way towards the direction of the sound of bubbling water. At the end of the hallway, he found the girl who saved him and brought him to her house. 

Her green sweater was stained with dirt  _ -and his blood?  _ and her glasses were all fogged up from pouring the hot liquid in a cup.

She sat across him at the table and slid a dish with crackers and sliced apples.

“I thought you might be hungry,” she said. Her voice was lowered to a whisper.

Aleksander didn’t know if he was hungry. He just knew that he was confused. He frowned and stared at his savior’s face which was looking at a distant point on the ground. He glanced around her face as if the answers he was looking for were there.

“How old are you?” He asked at the end.

Regina lifted her head a little and answered without making eye contact. 

“I turned fifteen last August.”

“You’re fifteen and you know how to clean a gunshot wound?” his voice was curious.

“Yes. I have a lot of time to read books,” She answered and shifted cautiously in her place. She turned her face and looked at the boy she just saved. And the boy who just saved her.

“Are you okay? Are you in pain?” Regina asked.

“Little. But I’m okay,” he reached out his good arm to touch his savior’s arm in an attempt of assurance and gratitude.

“Everything’s okay.” 

_ His hand is so soft _

__ _ He has a gun _

_ His eyes are so blue _

__ _ You cleaned his gunshot wound _

_ I cleaned his gunshot wound _

__ _ Ulrich caused it _

_ Ulrich caused it _

“Thank you,” Regina mumbled, ignoring the heat rising from the spot he touched.

“They should pay for what they did to you,” she added.

“What do you mean?” He answered, letting go of his arm and reaching for the dish on the table.

“Because of them, you got shot. You should go to the police and file a complaint against them.” She lifted her chin and looked at him confidently which amused him without reason. 

Aleksander nodded his head no and took a sip from his tea.

“Why? Are you afraid of the police?”

This time he nodded yes.

“Don’t be. My grandfather is a police officer. He can help you.”

Aleksander coughed out his cracker. 

“You... Your grandfather is a police officer?” he croaked out.

“Yes, he can help you. Don’t you think they should pay the price for hurting you?”

“I’m not hurt,” Aleksander started to look around the room, trying to locate his stuff.

“You certainly are. You have a gunshot wound on your shou— Where are you going?” Regina’s gaze followed him as he got up and slid his one arm on his leather jacket.

“Where are you going? You need rest,” Regina got up and took a step toward him but he drew back with  _ Pain? Fear? _

Aleksander stood at his place, silent. 

_ I owe her that,  _ he thought.

“They didn’t cause the gunshot.” He was looking curiously at her face.

“Th...They didn’t?” Regina stammered.

He pursed his lips and nodded no. 

Regina’s heart started racing and her eyes were almost reaching its pace with their blinking.

Aleksander packed up his things and turned to her one last time.

“Thank you for everything, Regina.”

And he was gone in a heartbeat. 

****

“Do you have a boyfriend Regina?” Claudia asked at her daughter’s reflection in the mirror.

Regina was watching her mother at the threshold as Claudia was putting on makeup. If she would fool around a little longer, Regina would be late for school. 

“No,” she scowled. She was getting increasingly impatient. 

“Too bad,” Claudia moved to apply lipstick and under her daughters’ disapproving looks she mumbled some words:

“You’re a very clever girl and I believe if you look after yourself, you might as well attract any boy.” 

She closed the lid of the lipstick and turned back to look at her daughter. She scanned her head to toe with her eyes and seemed like she was not happy with the results.

“But you really need to do something about your looks, sweetheart,” Claudia pinched the cheeks of Regina which were increasingly getting pink because of the irritation.

Claudia’s endless blabbers continued on the road too. She told Regina about the benefits of having a boyfriend. To Regina’s dismay, everything she suggested (going shopping, someone to listen to you) were the things that can be already done between a mother and daughter. However, Regina knew that her mother wasn’t aware of that fact.

That day at the school, Regina thought about Claudia’s words. She also thought about Aleksander and reminisced the time she wrapped his shoulder with a gauze bandage.

At the end of the school day, she packed her things and headed towards the exit. Her walkman decided to break down that day. Ever since the incident in the woods, it has been picking days to work or not.

Later she would be happy that it didn’t work that day. Because if it did, she might not have heard his voice.

“Regina!”

Aleksander was standing across the road.

It’s the first time she realized that he has dimples.

****

Aleksander takes a step towards Regina but she draws back with  _ Anger? Hurt? _

Regina doesn’t know how to feel. She has a desire to be held as she feels her legs wobbling. She stumbles her way back to the front porch, letting the grip of the things off of her trembling hands, and flops down on the steps. Her guitar is now positioned in a weird way and the strap of the guitar bag is squeezing her torso uncomfortably.

Aleksander ducks his hand under the canopy and without uttering a word, helps her pass the strap over her head. She follows his pensive face as he moves.

_ He lost weight, _ She thinks.

Aleksander sits next to her on the steps and looks at her. 

Regina can’t look back. She is very  _ Angry? Hurt?  _ But her eyes are betraying her by crying out tears of relief.

_ Thank God he’s alive,  _ She thinks.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she says instead.

Aleksander is smiling wistfully upon her. 

“Like what?” he asks faintly. He looks cold. His lips are slightly chapped.

“Like you’ve missed me,” tears fill the brim of Regina’s eyes.

“I missed you.” 

Regina lifts her head and turns to him with the tears streaming, flying off her cheeks like the small rain droplets bouncing off the cold wood entrance they’re sitting on.

“I was worried sick about you,” there is a lingering bitterness in Regina’s voice.

“I’m sorry, I was aw—”

“I have been going over this and over this in my mind forever!” Regina wipes her tears with the back of her hands.

“Was it something I said? I did? Was he abducted? Killed?” the bitterness turns into an angry heat in Regina’s stomach. 

“I’ve handled things very badly,” Aleksander mutters. 

“I didn’t mean to make you worried,” his face is getting paler and paler.

“I’m not worried now; I’m…” Regina bits her lips. She can’t say the word  _ hurt.  _ It might bring tears to her eyes again.

“I’m fed up,” she says instead.

She shakes her head and let go a nervous chuckle.

“I know you’d do this,” she fumes and moves to straighten up.

“The minute I saw you in the schoolyard that day. I know that you were no good. But you know what? Just like you used me for a job, I used you too.”

Aleksander wants to protest but instead, he blinks and pulls his head back to make sense of what he’s heard.

“Yes. I knew you’d leave me. Then you’d be just another blade in my set. And then I can go to my mother and rub it in her face. I can tell her  _ See, Is that what you wanted for me? A boyfriend? Well, guess what happened!” _

Regina takes a breath.

“But you did worse,” Regina’s voice breaks. 

“You were very nice and had lovely eyes. You made me laugh and come out of hiding.”

_ Oh, God. Not the tears again. _

“You opened up a door and I can’t close it anymore,” Regina stands up on her knees and holds the strap of her guitar bag.

“You were very nice until you weren’t,” she slides the strap over her shoulder and stands up on her feet.

Aleksander wants to say that  _ everything he said was true _ , but he knows that it wasn’t. His damn consciousness whispers to him:  _ Isn’t everything she says is true?  _

He decides to stay silent for a moment in recognition to his defeat, as Regina picks up her things.

“I’m sorry,” he quietly says.

Regina points out the plastic bag behind Aleksander with her head.

“You can have the heart,” she says and walks down the steps.

Aleksander lowers his chin to his chest after he sees Regina turn the corner. He sends his both arms at his sides, feeling a painful lump in his throat.

Not long after, he hears steps approaching. 

Bartosz bends down his head to catch the eyes of his father. 

“We need to go,” he says in a worried way.

Aleksander nods yes.

****

“He didn’t say anything about where he was going?” Elisabeth asks Silja as she is taking the chicken out of the oven.

“No,” she answers as she picks up the salad from the counter and goes to the living room.

Elisabeth shakes her head a little in confusion and takes off the oven gloves.

“Noah!” She calls her husband. “Can you check the chicken, if it’s done?”

“Coming,” Noah calls from the hallway, and then, he hears the key slipping into the lock of the front door. He turns back and opens the door to Bartosz. He is standing next to a boy slightly older than him and a—

_ Poodle? _

“Hello there,” Noah greets them, staring blankly towards their faces, taking the leash of the poodle from Bartosz’s hand. The poor girl got pretty wet from the rain. She sulks in one corner and shakes off. 

Now Noah gets wet too.

Bartosz and Aleksander make their way to the living room silently. 

Silja watches the scene as Elisabeth sticks her head out from the kitchen door.

“Bartosz, are you going to introduce your friend to us?” Noah asks, trying to make sense of the situation.

Elisabeth enters the living room and she exhales a deep sigh to Noah.

“Don’t you know him Noah?” she asks and offers a thoughtful expression to their guest.

“It’s Aleksander.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing makes me feel good in these difficult times.
> 
> Thank you for being around and reading the story!
> 
> How did you find the little changes I made here and there to Aleksander and Regina’s canon story?
> 
> and Can you detect which lyrics of Sara Bareilles Regina was telling to Aleksander while they were on the steps?
> 
> Your comments are more than welcomed :)


	9. Chapter 9

Ulrich Nielsen didn’t care much about handball, let alone follow every training session of his highschool’s handball team. But he felt obliged to. Otherwise, his girlfriend Katharina would be upset or even paranoid of him as she tended to be, ever since the “incident” in the woods. He learned not to care over time and having Hannah next to him at the playing court made it easier for him. They were making fun of anything and anyone they could find. Anyhow, Ulrich wasn’t in high spirits lately, and on that particular afternoon, Hannah noticed something that might be the cause of his annoyance.

They were waiting at the schoolyard for their friends when Ulrich suddenly turned to a voice. A voice addressing neither of them was coming from an unfamiliar face to Hannah. She turned to look at Ulrich whose face went white as his eyes followed the boy next to Regina.

“You seem like you’ve seen a ghost,” Hannah joked.

“You might say that,” Ulrich said without lifting his gaze.

“Who’s he?”

“Not someone you want to know.”

“Why?”

Ulrich turned his face to Hannah. He was visibly irritated by her questions.

“You ask too many questions,” he exasperated.

“I’m just curious,” Hannah mumbled. “Is he dangerous?”

“He’s got a gun, Hannah. Now shut up,” Ulrich sneered.

Hannah did shut up that day, but this stranger whom she didn’t even know his name had already piqued her curiosity. 

****

Dripping wet in the middle of a house in which his future son lives, Aleksander is trying to make sense of what’s happening around him.

“How do you know my name?” He asks the lady with honey blonde hair.

“I’m...just..” Elisabeth mumbles.

“You know what? Nevermind,” Aleksander brushes her off. “I’m cold, tired, and hungry. If you can show me where the bathroom is—”

“I’m sorry,” Elisabeth shakes her head and feels abashed for not offering the facilities in the first place. “Follow me. I’ll give you a towel.”

As they exit the room, Noah turns to Bartosz and shakes his head like _WTF?_ to which Bartosz answers with a deep sigh.

“He talked to Regina, it didn’t go well.”

“Oh God,” Noah slumps into a dining chair as he holds his head with both hands. 

Silja is watching Bartosz telling his story as she goes back and forth between the kitchen and living room to set the dining table. 

“I needed to tell him that I’m his son. I’m really sorry,” Bartosz concludes as Elisabeth comes back.

“We can talk about that after dinner,” she offers. 

The dinner is overwhelmingly silent with everybody occasionally throwing quizzical glances at each other. Aleksander excuses himself and goes to lay down which gives others valuable time to strategize.

“So let me recap what you’ve told us so far—” Noah sits back on his chair and ponders what Bartosz has told after Aleksander retreats to the bedroom.

“The day of the apocalypse, your father told you that someone is blackmailing him and he came clean to you about a murder case he was connected to in Marburg in 1986.”

“True.” Bartosz nods.

“He changed his name to Aleksander and started romancing my grandmother until he felt guilty about his lies and left her?” His voice has slanted slightly upwards at the end of his sentence as his eyebrows do the same.

Bartosz gives another nod, but this time his face does something to imply that he struggles to find a reason behind his father's actions.

“His logic was that if he could do something to prove that he can change and be a better person, Regina might accept him despite his wrongdoings.”

Elisabeth reaches out and pats Noah’s back gently as she stares blankly at a distant point on the table.

“I don’t understand,” she says. 

“Why now? Why did he decide to come clean in this timeline?” She wonders to herself.  
  
“You told that someone was blackmailing him,” Silja reiterates and looks at Bartosz, opening her eyes wide.

“That might force him to come clean.” 

“Good point, but he told me that when he was older. Do you think he tolerated blackmail for that many years? Besides now, this Aleksander—” Bartosz points to the hallway, “He didn’t say anything about blackmail,” his voice is lowered to a whisper.

“We should ask him that,” Elisabeth ponders.

“No,” Noah protests. “We shouldn’t ask him anything that might result in him learning something that he shouldn’t.” Noah takes Elisabeth’s hand in his palm and looks at her apologetically.

“He already knows a lot.”

“We should go to Eva,” Silja offers. “She can tell us what to do,”

“No!” Elisabeth’s protest comes louder than she imagined. Her sudden protest startles Noah and he lurches back. Elisabeth clears her throat and looks around sheepishly.

“I mean…” she mumbles and lays her hand on Noah’s leg. 

“We can still have a chance with them. You don’t see any marks on your bodies do you?”

Noah and Bartosz both shake their heads no.

“This is a good sign isn’t it?” Elisabeth asks Noah and he answers with an emphatic sigh.

Bartosz looks around with blank eyes. He is trying to find a solution and solace in all this mess since he feels responsible for lying to them and giving away his identity.

“If we ask him about something that has already happened to him, in his timeline, will it threaten the time loop?” he asks, balancing his weight on his chair by bracing his palms against the edge of the table.

Noah pouts and gives himself a couple of seconds to think. Then he utters a shy _no_. 

“So we can ask him about his past, his relationship with Regina, or his work with Claudia?”

“Yes—?” Noah gives a hesitant approval. He sits upright in the chair as if he remembers something.

“But we must not give away our true identities.”

Noah turns over Elisabeth.

“We know about him because of Bartosz, and you saw him a couple of times at the high school's backyard, that’s all.”

Noah throws a glance at his parents who watch him in silence. 

“We were merely helping Bartosz.” 

“Can you help me too by giving me a painkiller?” Aleksander, projecting a raspy voice, rubs his temples with closed eyes and disappears in the hallway.

Elisabeth throws a dazed stare behind him and leans forward with a stiff neck before she gets up and goes after Aleksander. Noah anxiously rubs his neck as Silja’s mouth falls open.

“Do you think he heard us?” Silja whispers.

Before the boys manage to give an answer, Aleksander rushes back and sits at Elisabeth’s chair. His hair is still dank and his eyes are looking glassy.

“So, where’s the car?” Aleksander asks without giving any additional information on what he means.

“What car?” Bartosz asks.

“You know, the DeLorean. The car that you came with. Time ma-chi-nee?” He mumbles.

Silja, Noah, and Bartosz exchange knowing looks with each other. 

“Do you think—?” Bartosz asks, apparently very amused by the situation. 

“I came here by car?”

“Yes! Wasn’t that how it was done in that film?” Aleksander asks, his eyes look funny as if he’s really tired or drunk.

Noah forces his lips to draw into a thin line as he tries to control his laughing but a naughty snort escapes anyway.

“You mean Back to the Future?” Bartosz asks, still managing a somehow serious demeanor. 

“Aleksander, I didn’t come here by car,” Bartosz adds as if he’s trying to conceive a five-year-old boy into believing that there are no monsters under his bed.

“Then the resistance sent you. Like Schwarzenegger,” Aleksander tilts his head and looks at his son. His glassy eyes manage to give him only a half of an eye roll. 

Silja gives a _hmm_ sound.

“Wasn’t that the Skynet who sent Schwarzenegger?” She asked, grinning a little, with her bottom lip tucked between her teeth.

At that point, Noah can’t hold back his laughter any longer. As Noah laughs, the others dissolve into laughter with him. Poor Aleksander blinks around, trying to understand what's funny about as Elisabeth comes back with a painkiller.

“What did I miss?” She asks smilingly.

“Not much,” Noah answers under his breath of which he barely managed to control.

“Aleksander is curious about time travel. He thinks we’re using a car. You know, like Back to the Future.”

Elisabeth chuckles and looks at Aleksander who seems to not enjoy the shared glee in the living room. 

“You look ill,” Elisabeth says, interrupting the humming cheers of others.

“Are you alright?”

Aleksander clears his throat. “Don’t worry lady, I’m not Schwarzenegger.”

“What? I—” Elisabeth puts her one hand on Aleksander’s forehead. Then she puts her other on her own.

“You have fever, Aleksander. You should rest. I will bring you medication, Okay?”

Aleksander nods blankly, not sure if he completely understands. Nevertheless, there is something in this lady’s voice that makes him think that she’s someone he can trust. 

“I need to go. Work,” Aleksander wanders as the voices around go on and on.

“Well, get rest, then you can go back to work,” Elisabeth gives an eye to Noah who in return gets up and helps Aleksander to stand up. Together they carry him to bed as if they are helping an intoxicated friend. Noah helps Aleksander wear an old t-shirt of his as Elisabeth brings the thermometer, and sets a box of tissues, water-bottle and pills on the nightstand. She hands a towel to Noah to dry his grandfather's still wet hair. After a couple of minutes, Aleksander falls back to sleep.

Noah sits on the bed and looks at his grandfather’s face solemnly. 

“I need to go to school tomorrow,” Elisabeth whispers, her hand cupping Noah’s shoulder. 

“Can you take care of him if he needs anything?”

Noah nods yes. He can’t help but feel sorry for his grandfather. 

****

The next day, an announcement is made to inform the school that the police department will make a security awareness course during lunch break. As students, teachers, and personnel start to gather in the sports hall, a teacher sends Hannah to go outside and call some students who are still idling around the schoolyard. Hannah is a favorite among most of the teachers as she usually sits quietly during class and has a rather innocent aura complemented by her freckles and almond-shaped eyes.

Hannah goes out to call their classmates. They gradually go inside until there is only one left in the schoolyard. Jürgen Obendorf is standing on the edge of a passageway, fidgeted, moving his feet back and forth. Hannah calls him a couple of times but he doesn’t respond.

Hannah snorts loudly and goes over Jürgen. As she gets close she can hear him grumbling.

“Damn him, and his damn poodle.” Jürgen has been grunting but then, he jumps with alarm when he notices a hand on his shoulder.

“They’re asking for all in the sports hall,” Hannah says as she rocks back and forth from her toes to her heels. 

“I don’t care okay? I’m not coming,” Jürgen scoffs at Hannah and pushes her a little.

Hannah, not enjoying being shoved, starts picking a hangnail lingering on her thumb and throws a deadly glare at Obendorf. Without saying anything more, she goes back inside with heavy footsteps. She has already heard what Obendorf is stressed about: a boy with a poodle. She happens to know a person that perfectly fits this description, who is shady enough to do business with Obendorf.

Neither Bartosz nor Silja notices Hannah coming in and taking a seat. As they also take their seats at the sports hall, Silja turns over to Bartosz and asks something that has been bothering her for a while.

“Why did you kiss me at the traffic lights?” She hesitates and tries to sound as matter of fact as possible.

Bartosz, in a similar as-a-matter-of-fact way, shrugs his shoulders.

“I don’t know. I was about to come up against my father. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Silja’s eyes widen, furious, she turns and storms off to sit in another seat.

Bartosz is a little perplexed as watching her leave, but the rest of the security awareness program is mostly uneventful.

As neither of them noticed Hannah in the beginning, nor did they notice her as she turns the corner to pick the road for the police station.

***

Hannah has been here before. A year ago, give or take. 

Her plan to punish Ulrich didn’t work in the past, but now, she is confident that her punishment for Jürgen for bashing her around today will be sentenced quickly. In a twisted way, she might even help Ulrich with what she has to say.

Hannah watches Inspector Tiedemann as he trudges his way into the office. He was always old but he seems to have gotten even older over the last few weeks. When he arrives at his door, he pauses and looks down at Hannah. She is looking at him without any noticeable mimic. He sighs loudly in an amateur effort to intimidate her but she doesn’t even move a muscle. 

“Ms. Krüger,” He grumbles. “What now?”

Hannah lifts her head. Her demeanor is so strange that even though she is sitting down, she makes Egon feel like she is looking down at him.

“Good afternoon, Inspector Tiedemann,” her voice has an eerie chirp. “They told in the security program that if we know anything we should come forward. I think you might be interested in what I need to say.”

Egon gives another sigh and searches his pockets to find the keys for his office. He lets Hannah in but doesn’t close the door. He had a long day, and he only has limited energy to listen to the ramblings of a highschooler. This should not take long.

***

What Egon initially thought as a nonsensical talk of a high schooler, turns out to be a huge deal for the extension of the inquiry. After Ms. Krüger left, he spent a considerable amount of coffee and time making reports and preparing a formal inquest to the prosecution’s office. He managed to arrive at the safe house just before midnight. He finds Regina sitting at the kitchen table, scribbling in her notebook and listening to her walkman. She doesn’t realize he came back.

Without a moment to spare, he taps her shoulder and signs for her to take off her headphones. Hesitantly, Regina does as requested, and watches his grandfather slump on a chair in front of her. He looks pale with dark smudges under his eyes. Regina wonders if he ever takes his medication which lays suspiciously still in a certain position on the kitchen table for a long time.

“Regina, I’m going to ask you something, but I want you to be honest with me,” his voice has a sharp tone. 

Regina opens her eyes widely and nods yes. She doesn’t understand the sudden tension.

“Do you still see the boy that Ulrich spoke about? Your— friend?" Egon hesitates to use the word _boy_ in front of the _friend_.

"Have you ever talked to him after your mom disappeared?”

“I’m— No,” Regina looks surprised by his frenzy. “Why?”

“I need to make sure, I had a complaint against him, might need to look up,” his voice drops a bit, he grips the armrest of his chair for support as he stands up. 

“He worked at the Power Plant, he had a gun apparently and a..poodle? With a gold-colored collar?” Egon throws a quizzical glance at his granddaughter, looking baffled.

“Did you know about that?” He asks again.

 _About guns, yes. About poodles,_ _no,_ Regina thinks. But she nods no to both of the questions.

“Did he— do anything?” Regina asks, her chin dips down and she starts pulling the edges of her sweater. 

Egon, partly because he somehow convinces himself of her obliviousness, partly because he is in excruciating pain, cuts his interview short. He sighs and without answering Regina’s question, lets her off with a crude warning.

After Egon goes to bed Regina stays a little more at the kitchen table. 

_Why do I still protect him? After what he’s done to me?_  
_You know why._  
_Oh, shut up._

She gets up and goes outside from the back door. 

***

The cold weather that stings her cheeks and the smell of damp pine trees make Regina feel peaceful and calm. She wraps herself a little tighter with her jacket as she pads all alone around the house. She entertains the idea of getting a little closer to the darkness of the woods. For some reason, she is not that afraid of the dark anymore. 

As she takes steps from light to dark, she is surprised by how quiet everything gets. The only sound she can hear is her boots crunching under her feet. For a while, she thinks her only audience are the whispering leaves. But then she finds others as well.

Bartosz is trying to keep his pace with a tiny poodle that leaps her way through the trees. With round beady eyes shining and a curly tail swishing like she just got all her birthday wishes at once, Regina wonders if the poor thing has been inside for a long time. Then she notices something else about her. A gold-colored collar is visible enough for her to notice it under the moonlight.

Of all the things that Bartosz has witnessed today, he reacts reasonably calm to see Regina around the woods in the middle of the night. He approaches her while keeping an eye on the dancing dog. The thought of seeing his mother generally perks Bartosz up, but not this time. He knows that he might need to lie to her again. 

Maybe it is because of the busy day he had, or the fact that he now owns his grandmother’s dog which he shamelessly ignored until dark to walk, but he feels very tired. He honestly doesn’t want to lie anymore.

Maybe that’s how Aleksander felt too. Too tired to lie.

“Hello Bartosz,” Regina calls him. “I didn’t know you had a dog,” she looks curiously behind the poodle.

“Yeah, I just adopted her...still trying to figure out the walking hours,” Bartosz blurts out at once and looks at her curiously.

Regina doesn’t say anything. She keeps looking at the dog and remembering her grandfather’s words.

“She’s beautiful. My mom always told me that she had a dog like this when she was little,” she says in a painful tone.

Bartosz looks at his feet. Healready knows what she’s talking about. For a second, he imagines never coming to the 1980s and staying with the horse Gretchen almost one century ago. 

“She has a nice collar,” Regina says and lets out an enormous breath. She looks behind, towards the path where she came from. 

“I need to go.” 

Bartosz doesn’t say anything. His eyes are unable to meet with hers, and a little too honest in the low light.

“Regina,” Bartosz calls after his mother. 

“Aleksander’s very upset and wants to talk to you. Is there any way you—”

“I think we exhausted all possibilities,” Regina cuts him short.

Regina smiles and gives Bartosz a thankful nod for not keeping up with his charade. She doesn’t understand what Aleksander does with this newcomer, but she doesn’t have enough energy to figure that out right now.

“Take care, Bartosz.”

Regina disperses into the darkness of the night.

***

Back in the Tauber Residence, Elisabeth and Noah return to their room, expecting a deep sleep and no sexy time after a totally exhausting day. 

Noah takes his shirt off and shoots it at the laundry basket. The t-shirt hung around the edge of the basket, halfway in.

Noah, disappointed, turns his face at Elisabeth who in turn gives him an emphatic nod.

“I’ll give it two points anyway,” she smiles and then lifts a finger and curls it, gesturing for him to come hither. He does. She grabs his face and kisses him gently.

As they unlock and look at each other, Elisabeth’s eyes slip down over Noah’s chest. She suddenly notices a dark spot close to his right shoulder.

“Oh my God,” Elisabeth backs away with a shriek, and then Noah gets a brief flash of the spot.

“It wasn’t there before,” he manages to utter.

They both fell silent.

Then Elisabeth finally touches the spot and turns her gaze to Noah’s face.

“What now?” she asks quietly.

***

The next day, Silja is up for another try in the crepes department. Until now, she has watched Bartosz and Noah make a dozen crepes. Surely she can do it by herself.

Silja arranges all the ingredients for her recipe on the counter, loses some time looking for the measuring cup but eventually finds it and starts preparing the mix.

Just before the household wakes up, she manages to stack up to four perfectly made crepes on top of each other. As she collects the syrup from the fridge, she hears a noise. She closes the fridge and sees Bartosz’s smiling face.

Silja, still bitter about their conversation yesterday, contents herself with only a _huff_ and points the crepes with a raised eyebrow as if to say “ _Look how good they are_.”

Bartosz throws a glance at the crepes and gives her a nod of affirmation. He then looks around the kitchen. 

“And you worked gleamingly clean this time,” he says and looks appreciatively at her face and notices a little flour on her hair again, just like the previous time.

This time he decides to touch the strand to wipe off the flour. Silja watches him silently as he reaches and gently strokes her hair. She seems to be feeling shy and turns her eyes away from him as it's the first time he's showing genuine care for her. However, his gentle stroke turns into an agitated wiping in, no time.

“What the hell did you put in your hair?” Bartosz asks as he picks a clean cloth and puts it under running water. Silja blinks at him as he takes the floury strand and starts wiping it with the cloth impatiently. Silja irks away and stares at him in confusion.

“What?” She asks.

“Did you paint your hair white?” Bartosz asks, keeping his gaze on Silja’s hair, distracted. 

“No, what are you talking about—?” She asks and turns over to catch her reflection on the glass-doored kitchen cabinets. When she did, she sees a glimpse of a white streak of hair falling in front of her eyes.

“It wasn’t there before this morning,” she mumbles.

“ _Fucking hell,_ ” Bartosz says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah Gretchen. My deus ex machina for this chapter. What would I do without you?  
> Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter.  
> Your comments are always appreciated!


	10. Chapter 10

Standing in front of the mirror down the hallway, Bartosz and Silja are joined by Elisabeth and Noah. Noah slides the neckline of his sweater to show the mark on his shoulder which mysteriously appeared last night. Their gazes travel across the mysterious changes on their bodies until they all concentrate on Bartosz’s face.

“Why didn’t you change?” Silja asks to the reflection of Bartosz.

“I have no idea,” he answers towards the mirror. He then turns around to check Silja’s hair once more. 

“The big question is: Why did _you_ change?” 

Silja shrugs and looks at Noah and Elisabeth in hope for answers but they both seem to be equally perplexed by this situation as she is. 

“Eva told that the changes might happen to Regina’s descendants if she breaks up with Aleksander,” Noah explains as he lowers his face towards his hand with frustration and then stretches his arm towards Silja.

“But, you’re not their descendant. Bartosz _is_ and yet he doesn't have any changes on his body. Do you Bartosz?”

Bartosz nods no and then notices Aleksander staggering his way towards them behind Noah's back.

“Mrs. Tauber?” he asks politely. “I guess I’m feeling better. Maybe I should go.”

Noah throws a look at Elisabeth and makes a gesture that it’s not a good idea. Elisabeth turns around and gives Aleksander a genuine smile.

“Aleksander you can stay here as much as you want. Don’t you want to make breakfast first? We can talk about it later.”

Aleksander weighs his options. To be honest, returning to the cold company building doesn’t seem to be appealing. He nods meekly and turns back toward where he came from.

Elisabeth looks after Aleksander and shakes her head emphatically. His respectful and calm personality made quite an impact on her during this short time they’ve spent together. She doesn't want to believe the rumors about him. To Elisabeth, Aleksander seems like a misunderstood person who has experienced many mishaps on his way. She cared very much for him as she cares for other members of her husband’s family. 

“I want to cook something nice for him today,” she says behind his back and looks at Noah.

“Can you stay at home with him a little, while I go and grab some groceries?” She asks, opening her eyes wide.

“But...I…” Noah tries to protest. His plan for today doesn’t include babysitting his grandfather. However, it is really hard to say no when his wife is looking at him with adorably looking eyes.

“Okay, but don’t be late, we need to discuss this and I probably need to go to Erit Lux.”

Elisabeth feels a chill on her back when she hears Eva’s headquarters’ name. Without saying anything, she gestures to Bartosz and Silja to get prepared since they have school today.

After Elisabeth gives Silja a beanie to hide her white strand the girls are ready, but for some reason, Bartosz has difficulty wearing his shoes. All of a sudden four people help him slip into one pair of shoes. Bartosz can’t help but feel like Cinderella’s evil sister.

“Are you sure these are your shoes?” Noah asks, scratching his head.

“Positive,” Bartosz answers. “Maybe they got shrunk because of the rain.”

“Heavy black boots?” Elisabeth questions. “What about your sneakers?”

Bartosz reaches for the other pair that he brought with him from the 1900s. He tries his left foot but no success. His shoes don’t fit.

“Noah?” Bartosz lifts an eyebrow towards his son. “Did you do something to my shoes?”

Noah shakes his head no in a serious way. He kneels before Bartosz and looks blankly in front of him.

“I guess the problem is not your shoes, but your feet father,” he says, struggling to find humor.

Noah is right. Bartosz’s feet have gotten bigger since yesterday. Perplexed, Bartosz wiggles his longer than usual toes inside his grey socks.

“At least now we know that you’ve changed too,” Silja says in a futile attempt of optimism.

*****

After giving an old pair of sneakers of Noah to Bartosz and filling the wide gaps with cotton balls, Elisabeth accompanies Bartosz and Silja until the school juncture. 

“Are you not coming to school?” Silja asks, her one arm is extended towards Bartosz to provide additional support until he adjusts walking with somebody else’s shoes.

“No, I have errands to do first,” Elisabeth says without giving detail.

She says goodbye to two of them and goes apart. After a five minute walk, she arrives at the bus stop and gets on a bus which takes her to a very secluded part of the town nearby.

After another ten minute walk, Elisabeth arrives at the door of a two-story red brick house. She rings the bell and looks around herself as she waits for it to open. This is truly a very secluded place, with no apparent neighbors nearby and surrounding pine trees. Elisabeth wonders how the owner can keep the house in an impeccable state without seemingly no extra help.

As she is drawn into her thoughts, a sharp but chirpy voice startles her. There is an older woman at the door, her silvery curls fall below her prominent chin. She is looking at her with piercing blue eyes. The old woman’s lips curl into a mischievous smile when she notices her visitor.

“Hello, Elisabeth.”

“Hello, Agnes. I need your help.”

*****

When Bartosz and Silja arrive at the school, they see an unusual amount of students and teachers gathered around the schoolyard. The police are patrolling as usual but it seems like there are more officers today than it’s ever been.

“They just took Jürgen Obendorf,” one of Silja’s classmates says as they pass through the crowd. 

Bartosz and Silja look at each other and frown in confusion. 

“What for?” Bartosz asks.

The boy looks sheepishly and shrugs off. 

“Who knows? With him, it can be anything. Did you know he got suspended for beating a classmate last semester?” he says and drops his head low. He checks on Bartosz’s shoes.

“Hey, nice shoes. Where did you get them?”

Neither Bartorz nor Silja respond to that question as they leave the boy grimacing behind them. 

Inside their classroom, there are a few students who line up along the windows to watch the remaining party of officers leaving the schoolyard. 

As she is settling into her seat, Silja notices a small paper folded and stuck on her desk. Looking around to see who might put it there, Silja can’t make eye contact with any of her classmates. She unfolds the paper carefully and reads the note:

_Girls’ bathroom, first break._

*****

Against his fellow officers’ advice, old Egon Tiedemann insisted on interviewing Jürgen Obendorf himself. Trudging his way into the interrogation room, he sits across Jürgen and his appointed lawyer. Young Jürgen has a disappointed and almost bored expression on his face which gives the impression that he has been around the block a few times before.

“Jürgen Obendorf” Egon puts on his reading glasses as he opens the folder before him.  
“Possession of a controlled substance, selling alcohol to minors, battery,” he pokes his chin forward and strokes his one-week-old stubble. 

“Did you add kidnapping to your list lately?” He closes the folder and takes a look at him behind his glasses. 

“I don’t understand why I’m here, Inspector. If you care to explain?” Jürgen scuffs at him.

“I believe you helped someone kidnap these kids, and maybe you did it all by yourself.”

“Chief Inspector, allow me to remind you that you have a juvenile suspect before you. If you have any proof of your allegations, say it now or release my client,” says Jürgen’s lawyer, a young well-dressed woman with eyes that tip up at outside corners as she talks. Egon guesses that she is one of those new lawyers who think they bring justice to the world as soon as they start their practice. 

He shuffles in his place and reaches out to his folder again.

“We have witness accounts which verify he has a connection with a suspect who is potentially dangerous and has a gun in his possession.”  
  
Egon takes out a photo of Aleksander which was taken from his personnel file in AKW. Like many photographs that are taken for identity cards, this photo also has that cruel light play which makes Aleksander look very pale and lifeless.

“Do you know him?” Egon asks.

Jürgen and the enthusiastic lawyer look at each other. The lawyer slightly lowers her head to indicate that it’s okay. They have already talked about their strategy. 

“If I cooperate, am I free to go?” Jürgen asks.

“That depends on what you will tell me,” Egon says and lies back on his chair.

******

Silja is counting back from 120. According to her calculations, after 2 minutes, the bell for the break will ring. She is fidgeting on her seat and wonders what the note is about. She also has to check her new white hair and see if she needs extra hairpins to pin it under her regular chestnut hair. 

With the sound of the bell, she rushes towards the door but stopped by a sudden thump. Hannah is looking at her with wide eyes.

“Oh! The person I want to see,” Hannah chirps and takes a step back to look at Silja’s harried appearance. 

“But I guess you were equally excited to see me,” she adds, laughing at her joke.

Silja frowns at Hannah. “Did you—” she starts but stops mid-sentence. 

Hannah takes out an envelope that she keeps hidden behind her back.

“I wanted to give you this. I hope you can come. Bartosz too.” She says as she impatiently fiddles on her feet while watching Silja open the envelope and read the card inside.

“Oh,” Silja says as she reads the invitation to Hannah’s birthday party. “Was this all about?”

Hannah shakes her head. “What?” she says.

“Did you write anything else to me?” 

Hannah chuckles. “Not that I know of. Are you okay?”

Silja’s hand is traveling on her face as she rapidly blinks at Hannah. “Yeah,” she manages to say.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Silja says and takes a step towards the hall.

“I’m coming with you,” Hannah says behind her.

Silja snickers but doesn’t say anything. This note situation bothers her. If it wasn’t Hannah then who was it? Why is she experiencing changes? What’s up with Bartosz and his hot and cold ways? How much more she can ta—

Another thump brings her back to the real world. As Silja looks down to her feet, she sees Regina Tiedemann picking her glasses up from where it fell. She squints her eyes to see who did she hit and when she sees Silja, she makes a noise that sounds like gasping.

“I’m sorry Regina, Are you okay?” Silja asks.

“I’m fine,” she answers and goes to the washbasin to clean her glasses. 

“I was actually—” Regina starts.

“Last year Ulrich made the funnies—” Hannah catches up with Silja but cuts the adventures of Ulrich short when she sees Regina inside. She didn’t prepare an invitation for her and nor does she intend to make up one right now. 

There is a pregnant silence until Silja decides to go inside one of the stalls and wait there until the break ends. Hannah considers waiting for her but it seems like Regina is taking her time very generously with cleaning her glasses.

“Whatever. See you at lunch Silja,” Hannah calls out and gives a plain nod to Regina before she leaves.

After a minute or so, Silja hears a knock on the stall's door.

“It’s okay Silja. You can come out now,” Regina calls in. 

After a sound of flushing water, Silja comes out of the stall, confused.

“Regina, Did you—” 

“Yes, I wrote you the note,” Regina says crudely and reaches out to jerk Silja’s arm for more attention. 

“I don’t have much time, I’ll just say this to you: I know Aleksander is staying with you.” 

“Wha—, How—”

Silja makes a distorted noise.

“The police are after him. They think it’s about the disappearances,” Regina says and takes a deep breath.

“I found that tomorrow they will search the woods with dogs. They might also come to your house.”

Silja shakes her head as her mouth falls open.

“Why are you telling me this?” She asks her as the sound of the school bell echoes through the tiled walls.

Regina runs her hands through her thick curls.

“I don’t know. I guess you wanted to know,” she answers and goes in an instant without adding anything else.

****

Back in the Tauber Residence, a teenage grandfather and his adult grandchildren are playing cards and eating crisps.

“Aleksander,” Noah says and deals the cards meditatively in the meantime.

“Yes, Herr Tauber?” Aleksander says back as he dives his hand to the crisps bag once again.

“No mention of this to Elisabeth, okay? If she learns this, she’ll kill me.” 

Aleksander chuckles and nods yes. 

“Don’t worry Herr Tauber, I won’t say a word,” he assures and takes a peek at his cards.

“It’s your turn, Herr Tauber.”

“The name is Noah, Aleksander” Noah asserts.

 _And technically I’m younger than you,_ he also whispers to himself.

“Yes. Noah,” Aleksander complies.

For a couple of minutes, they play in silence. Then Aleksander decides to open the discussion of their strange situation in the hope that Noah will give a serious answer this time.

“How do you and Bartosz know each other?”

“He is considered my wife’s family,” Noah monotones without looking away from his cards.

“But we’ve already talked about these Aleksander. Come on, no talk, more play,” he says as he gestures with his head.

Aleksander selects a card and places it on the table.

“Yes, but...with time travel, how does it work exactly?”

Noah makes a face and drops all his cards on the table. He opens another crisps bag and dives his hand into it with frustration.

“You did know Back to the Future, right?" He asks and without waiting Aleksander's response he continues.

"Then you should know that learning things you should not learn before its time might create unwanted consequences.”

Aleksander looks at the eyes of Noah which suddenly went cold. It’s no secret that he doesn’t want to talk about this subject. Aleksander swallows and shifts cautiously in his place.

“Maybe I should go,” He says and as he straightens up, the sounds of the keys jingling and the door opening fill the room.

Silja’s carefully pinned chestnut hair appears at the door. Bartosz follows her, he seems to be more comfortable with his new shoes since this morning. 

“Oh, Hello, Who is it?!” Noah practically shouts at them to conduct his voice to the entrance. He also enjoys acting like he doesn’t know who usually comes at this time of the day just to irritate Bartosz a little bit more.

Bartosz mutters some curse words under his breath. He wants to shout back: _It’s your father and mother!_ But he didn’t. They find Aleksander and Noah surrounded by some empty bags of crisps and other snacks. Aleksander looks at both of them a little uncomfortably.

“Are you coming from school?” He asks.

Bartosz answers with a nod and throws himself on the sofa and moves a little so Silja can sit beside him. 

“Did you— um— See Regina by any chance?” Aleksander asks and goes very still for their answer.

Silja takes a look at Bartosz who vaguely gestures with his head toward her to answer.

“I did,” Silja answers faintly to soothe the effect of what she will say next.

“They are looking for you Aleksander. They think you’ve got to do something with the disappearances.”

“What?!” 

Aleksander grimaces with a sheer of terror.

It takes a moment for Aleksander to make sense of what he’s just heard. Noah abruptly finishes his happy chewing and swallows.

“Tomorrow there will be a search in the Winden Woods. With dogs and everything. There is nothing we should be cautious about, is there?” Aleksander’s son is looking at him with dark, serious eyes.

Aleksander wants to say no. But he knows it won’t be honest. When he opens his mouth his voice comes out as a croak.

“We need to go to the woods. There is something I need to take back.” 

Aleksander then turns his face toward Noah. 

“We might need some equipment. For digging.”

The moment Bartosz hears the word _dig_ he thinks his whole body got numb.

*****

They wait until dark to leave the house and check for Aleksander’s stash. Aleksander tries his best to make sure to Bartosz and Noah that the only things they should be worried about are his gun and the passport of the real Aleksander. They won't be looking for any bodies. 

When they reach the spot, Aleksander crashes on his knees and fumbles the dirt with his hands. He makes sure that they are in the right place. Noah and Bartosz bring out the equipment. They both did many digging for Erit Lux but this will be a first.

After an hour-long brutal bodywork, they still haven't found anything. Disgruntled, they take a break. Aleksander shoves his fingers into his hair which became damp because of the sweating. 

“I swear it was there.” He wheezes as he looks down to the bottom of the pit. 

There is a jarring silence in the woods at this time of the evening. Except for the wind slipping through leaves, the flutter of unseen wings, and their breathing, there is no other sound. And neither of them opens their mouth to break it. But then, they hear footsteps that crack the undergrowth with each step.

They have neither the time nor the energy to hide. The next minute passes in a lurch of terror. Aleksander’s heartbeat becomes very loud, after he gets hit with a flash of light into his face.

It takes a couple of seconds to process the identity of their unwanted visitor. At the end of the flashlight, Regina Tiedemann stands up straight, her gaze is fixed on Aleksander.

“You’re going to tell me everything,” She says. 

Her voice sounds like this was an order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking around.  
> I want to finish this piece. The problem is I don't know when :)  
> Your comments are always appreciated!


	11. Chapter 11

Not long after they made coffee for their teenage parents back at the beginning of the school semester, Elisabeth and Noah find themselves again in the kitchen, brewing coffee and preparing snacks for their parents _and_ their estranged grandparents in the middle of the night.

As Elisabeth pours cheese crackers in a plate, she repeats Agnes’ words in her mind:

_There isn’t a bigger threat than Erit Lux. If you have to choose someone to trust, trust yourself, your family, but not Eva._

She lets go a sigh which is loud enough for Noah to notice. He drops his task at hand and turns to hug her from behind, hooking his chin on her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” he whispers to her neck.

Elisabeth forces herself to give him a faint smile. Noah kisses her cheek and releases his grip. He takes a step back to look at his wife.

Elisabeth, standing still, lowers her head and gives another sigh. She then shakes her head and turns back to face her husband.

“Noah,” she says, and her posture shifts from passive to assertive.

“I don’t think we should contact Erit Lux right away.”

Noah raises an eyebrow at her.

Elisabeth turns back abruptly and starts arranging the cups on the tray.

“I know you respect her, but please don’t rush to tell her everything. You’ve already done a lot and I—just don’t trust Eva that much,”

She has her own reasons to feel that way but this is not the right time to tell Noah. Besides, most of the explanation is not hers to give in the first place. 

*****

All of the Tiedemann clan is packed around the circular table in the studio when Elisabeth and Noah come with a tray of hot beverages and snacks.

“Coffee, anyone?” Elisabeth asks, trying to sound as normal as possible. She and Noah take their seats next to each other as Bartosz and Silja tuck at one edge of the table.

Regina and Aleksander sit on the opposing sides and have some kind of a staring contest. 

“Thank you, Frau Tauber,” Regina murmurs as she reaches for her cup, without lowering her gaze towards Aleksander.

Elisabeth nods and looks back and forth between Regina and Aleksander. Aleksander swifts in his place uncomfortably but keeps staring at Regina. There is no winner in their game.

“Are you sure, you being here won’t be a problem for your grandfather?” Elisabeth asks cautiously.

Regina turns her head towards Elisabeth and nods no. 

“He doesn’t even stay in the house anymore and the officer they put in charge of my safety is not better than the rest of the department,” she answers and looks right back at Aleksander.

“If they were good at what they do, _they_ would have caught you burying a body in the woods, not me,” Regina says, trying her best to hurt Aleksander with her words but she hardly even convinces herself of their fatality.

Aleksander sighs loudly and pulls his chair a little more towards the table. The sudden shaking makes the coffees spill a little.

“I didn’t bury a body, nor did I kill anyone,” Aleksander says in a way that reminds Bartosz of their quarrel back in the company building. Aleksander insisted several times that he didn’t hurt anybody and got very upset when Bartosz blamed him for using Regina.

And yet he has never explained himself.

After exhaling a long breath to calm his senses, Aleksander starts talking in a low voice, almost ashamed to be heard.

“Regina,” he says, blinking at her direction, searching a solace of sympathy in her eyes.

“You remember how we’ve met haven’t you?” He asks.

Regina frowns at this unexpected question. Not because she doesn’t remember, she actually remembers every little detail of it, but it’s an interesting way to start your _I Didn’t Kill Anyone_ talk. Not to mention the fact that they are in front of Regina’s Arts Teacher, her family, and Regina's classmates. 

Regina throws a quick glance around herself and looks back at Aleksander.

“It’s okay,” Aleksander assures and surveys the room.

“It’s okay Regina you can tell. They are family to me.”

Regina sighs heavily as her gaze falls at the edge of the table.

“I remember,” she says. Her voice is cold and distant. 

“We met in the woods.”

Silja should not feel giggly right now but yet she does. Even though she knows the crude details told by Hannah, it is always good to listen to a love story told by its lovers.

“We met in the woods, I was hurt. You helped me with a nasty wound. Here.” Aleksander sends a hand to his shoulder. 

Regina rolls her eyes uncomfortably. Of course, she remembers the gunshot wound. She remembers Aleksander’s weight on her side as she assisted his walking, she remembers how he pressed his lips together as she put a gauze pad on his wound and she certainly remembers what Aleksander said that day. 

He said everything’s okay.

She believed him. 

She can’t help the feeling but she wants to believe him, too, right now. 

“I got shot that day when I—”

“I’m sorry,” Bartosz interrupts. He tries not to have a nervous breakdown in front of his family as he tries to digest the information he has just got.

“You’ve— got shot?” Bartosz asks incredulously. “The day you’ve met? You’ve got shot?”

Bartosz knows about the scar. He's seen it many times on his father’s shoulder on holidays, around the pool, in the sea. But Aleksander told him that it was from an accident he had as a child. 

_Accident my ass,_ Bartosz thinks.

Aleksander nods silently. His matter-of-fact demeanor would almost make Bartosz let go a nervous laugh.

“And what were you doing there, Regina?” Elisabeth asks and holds her coffee cup.

“I was going back from my guitar lesson, Frau Tauber,” Regina answers, letting go an impatient huff in between. 

“That’s when Ulrich and Katherina attacked me.”

Elisabeth almost drops her cup. She frowns to process what she heard and repeats what Regina’s already said.

“You’ve got attacked?! When? Why?”

“It was long ago. I was minding my own business and felt a hard kick on my abdomen. Katherina was shouting at me. When I regained myself I saw Aleksander fighting with Ulrich and Katherina.”

Silja is having mixed feelings. This story isn’t how Hannah told her at all.

“Are you sure, that’s how it happened?” Silja asks, in an effort to exonerate her mother.

“Yes. I ran away but then heard a gunshot. Ulrich and Katherina escaped. I was about to escape too but Aleksander— ” Regina closes her eyes and shakes her head as if she wants to erase the image of Aleksander lying unconscious on the ground.

“She cleaned my wound in her house and thought they shot me. They didn’t. I was already shot when I was there,” Aleksander says.

Elisabeth turns over to give an incredulous glare at Noah. She barely holds herself to gape in disbelief. On the contrary, Noah is grinning ear-to-ear, his eyes get wide with enthusiasm.

“This is even crazier than how we’ve met!” He says chirping in full cheerfulness.

In normal circumstances, Silja would join Noah in his enthusiasm but she is still confused.

“Who shot you Aleksander?” Silja asks.

Aleksander gives out a sigh and looks in front of him. 

“I was involved in a robbery that day in Marburg,” he says as his head starts to feel heavy.

“I was working in this locksmith’s shop. The owner was a very rude, condescending man who was calling me racial slurs and made me work for long hours and never paid enough.”

Aleksander falls in silence for a couple of seconds as the others take his cue. 

“At that time, I was alone in Marburg. My only _friend_ was this guy called Aleksander. He knew how much I hated this job, and I—” 

Aleksander abruptly stops. He takes a full breath in and lifts his head up to look at Regina.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Please believe me,” Aleksander says with a tremulous voice. 

Regina doesn’t speak. She is surprisingly stoic in her manners. 

Aleksander closes his eyes and mumbles: “I shouldn’t have told him that. He got the best of me.”

“We made a plan to rob the shop. I would leave a window open after my shift and we would enter and clear out the safe at night. Someone must have seen us. Because the locksmith came. He had a gun. I—”

Aleksander takes another full breath and pauses before he finds the courage to continue.

“I didn’t know that Aleksander brought a gun. I swear. He pulled out his gun. The locksmith too. One bullet ripped through my shoulder. We somehow managed to escape and ran into the woods but we could hear the police searching for us. I couldn’t run anymore, the pain was killing me. Then—Aleksander attacked me. We were next to a cliff. He tried to take my bag. I was carrying our passports. I tried to resist and take the gun from his hand. We struggled. The soil must be wet from the rain or something because as I took the gun—.”

Aleksander throws a glance around himself. Everybody, everything goes very still. He can hear his heartbeat in his ears. 

“He slipped and fell off the cliff. His scream. It was horrible. It was horrible.” Aleksander shudders and buries his face in his hands.

No one blinks for a second. Even Bartosz, who knows the story with broad strokes gets shocked. 

“What about the police?” Elisabeth asks. Elisabeth finds within herself that she isn’t blaming him. Maybe it is wrong but she still considers Aleksander the unfortunate boy she has met. 

“I wanted to surrender myself to the police, but they wouldn’t believe that I didn’t hurt Aleksander,” he says. “I knew from my father that prison changes people. He used to say it is better to be dead than to be there.” His voice sounds muffled, coming from where he covers his head.

Elisabeth bits inside of her cheek. 

_Stupid, stupid boy_ , she thinks. 

_Doesn’t he have anyone to call to?_

“My father died just before I arrived at Marburg. The only family member that cared for me was my Grandpa Bartosz, but he died shortly,” Aleksander lifts his head and casts a nervous glance at Bartosz.

Hearing about the person that gives him his name makes Bartosz’s heart clench with a weird sense of compassion and sadness. 

“I heard some voices. I thought they found me, but then—I see them. Hitting you.”

Regina, who is grateful not to be addressed up until this point lifts her head to look at Aleksander’s sullen face. She wants to talk back at him but she senses too many lumps on her throat and too many teeth on her mouth.

“I thought if I die here and there it was okay. I would at least stand against these bullies and give you some time to distance yourself.”

Regina’s lumps on her throat are pressuring, and tears are filling the brim of her eyes.

“But you came back Regina,” Aleksander speaks through the breaks of his own weeping.

Elisabeth slides one hand on Aleksander’s back and pats between his hunched shoulders with empathy. The first rays of the morning sun start to paint the walls a pale pink.

“It wasn’t your fault. It was stupid of you to rob the shop. But you didn’t know that it would become violent. Once you got shot, it was outside of your control. And you didn’t hurt anybody. When you have been involved in activities that were…illegal…” Elisabeth whispers.

“I feel terrible,” Aleksander says.

“I know,” Elisabeth says faithfully and looks back at Noah, who more than anyone in this room knows how it must have felt for Aleksander. He looks shaken and avoids eye contact with Elisabeth even though he knows she is looking at him. 

Noah knows well how to get stuck between duty and his conscience. He is now feeling the same thing about Aleksander. One part of him whispers that he should turn him over to the authorities, but the other part knows very well that if he does that, he will jeopardize his life and possibly the whole time loop. 

Maybe it’s already too late for these discussions. Regina was surprisingly stoic during Aleksander’s talk and even though she shed some tears, Noah doubts that this sympathy will be enough for Aleksander to be cleared in the eyes of Regina.

Noah is not a fan of interrupting natural occurrences by making shocking announcements like _I’m your future grandson_ but for the sake of all, he realizes that he might need to do that in the near future.

“I need to go,” Regina announces and jerks Noah’s attention back to reality. Noah looks at Regina’s face as she stands up. Pandora’s box is opened tonight and all the evils are released. But there, on Regina’s face, as she stands up, there is an expression that can be read as one of the most important contents of that box: Hope.

“I need some air too,” Bartosz says and goes out through the rear door to the garden. Silja follows him a little later. 

Noah gets up too and squeezes Aleksander's good shoulder.

“This doesn’t define you,” He says meditatively. 

“We’ve got this. We’ve got this.”

******

Inspector Tiedemann spent the whole night at the police station planning the search in the woods. As the away team heads for the woods, he and a few officers pay a visit to the Power Plant where some witness accounts place Aleksander with Claudia at the time of her disappearance.

Egon approaches the office of her daughter with an intense scowl of determination on his face. Claudia’s assistant Jasmin greets him in front of Claudia’s glass partitioned office and hands him a note.

“Inspector Tiedemann,” Jasmin hesitates as she hands out a piece of paper to Egon.

“I found this note when I was cleaning up her desk. I thought I should give this to you,”

Egon takes the note and unfolds it with his trembling hands and reads it.

As he reads the note his furrow deepens and he feels his face tighten.

"You should have shown me this earlier Fräulein Trewen," he says, his note holding hand is clenched into a fist.

“Where are those cassette tapes?” He asks, his furrow tighten into a scowl.

Three hours later, against the advice of many, Egon Tiedemann puts on a nuclear protection suit. He asks for Bernd Doppler and makes it a priority to take his testimony as soon as he checks this underground place of which Claudia talks extensively on her cassette tapes.

Even though he wanted to check there alone, the security makes it absolutely clear that it’s not possible. Two sturdy, solid men with angular jaws and a _no-bullshit_ air, accompany him to a place that has an old reactor cooling pool. Egon orders the men to dismantle the top concrete layer with excavators. Half an hour later two lids of barrels emerge under the debris.

Egon doesn’t know what to expect when he opens the barrel. He remembers a smoke then an amorphous, liquid-like form that transforms into a circle and opens a hole before his eyes. This is a portal to another dimension. 

Before him, a woman stands up with her cornsilk silver hair tied down and falling her back. She has a big smile on her face and gets teary-eyed as the image before her becomes clearer. Egon takes a step forward and takes off his headgear. Even though the light is dim, he is able to select one blue and one brown eye on his greeter’s face. 

“Claudia?” Egon asks. His voice trembles as he gets quite perplexed.

Claudia opens her arms wide.

“Welcome, Papa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thank you for reading this chapter!  
> It was hard to write. Not just because it is an emotional chapter but also time-traveling gets intense, there are many callbacks to previous chapters, people start to learn new things and some people disappear.  
> I know that there is still a lot that Regina should learn about Aleksander, but cut her some slack. She is about to have another shock soon.  
> Time-travelling works in weird ways in this story. So in my mind opening the barrels didn't cause a catastrophe. Is it possible that someone in the story is manipulating the rules of time-traveling? Maybe. But it might be that I'm also lazy.  
> Your comments are always appreciated!


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